Haunted Eyes
by cip
Summary: normal wasn't how anyone would describe Itachi. But when Deidara ends up as his project partner he realises that the Uchiha is hiding much more than people thought. Ghost Hunt cross-over, very minor itadei
1. Chapter 1

**Okay then. I'm a big Naruto fan, and a Ghost Hunt fan (which it seems not enough people know about!), so I thought putting the two together would be fun! If you don't know Ghost Hunt then it's not an issue, since I'll be mainly concentrating on Naruto characters, with the others only making guest appearances. This is a yaoi fic (well, will be in later chapters) and part of a series. I'll be writing lots of multi-chapter stories, which are all set in the same AU verse. That leads me on to my next point – AU!! They're in this world, here and now. The places they go are real unless stated otherwise. This is set in England, since I know to nothing about Japanese everyday life, and I'm not writing a flipping American Highschool fic! has enough of those! (Not that I mind them.)**

**So yeah, this is AU, in England (Nottingham to be exact) and contains ghosts, demons, spooks, spirits, poltergeists and all other wonderful paranormal entities. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I love writing it, and please feel free to leave a review. I laugh at flames then eat the flamers, so if you feel the need to be nasty don't bother, I won't give a damn ******

**And biggest haggles and thanks to the awesome Manu, who beta'd this thing for me, love you sweetie huggles**

**Oh yeah, I've got some fanart for this on my Deviantart, the link is on my profile :D**

**I own nothing but the laptop I wrote this on, and the plot. **

Haunted eyes.

"...And through Kant's categorical imperative we can see that the ends truly justify the means..."

Deidara rested his chin on his cupped hand and stared dully out of the window. Around him the Philosophy and Ethics A-level class were in similar states of stupor as the teacher read an article at them. Yes, _at_ them, not _to_ them. To be honest he couldn't care less for this subject anyway, but had been forced to keep at it since he'd dropped an allotted subject already and needed the three A-levels to get into a foundation art course. A small smile crossed his face at the thought. Sure, it was only October, but already he was day-dreaming of next autumn in university. Should all go to plan he was going to be taking the foundation course at the local university; Nottingham Trent. Okay, so it wasn't the big Nottingham uni, but it was a decent one in its own right, and good for an old polytechnic.

The blonde sighed slightly as he watched a sparrow hop around in the bush outside the window, his mind filling with ideas of sculptures and paintings he could create of the little creature. His hand was already moving across the paper in front of him, sketching feathers and beady eyes before his brain kicked in and reminded him that he was drawing all over the lessons notes. Not that it mattered; he hadn't been listening anyway so might as well do something constructive.

That was Deidara's problem really; he only cared about one thing when it came to college, and that was art. This had been an issue earlier in his life too; at nearly twenty he was old for a sixth former, but had failed his As levels when he'd first taken them. A year out in the world of work made him decide to try again, and this time had promised himself not to concentrate solely on his favourite 

subject. The resolution was proving tricky, but he'd passed the first year this time round with a modest triplet of C's and, of course, a nice big A in art. Year thirteen was proving far more difficult, as his random bird doodling were proving.

"-dara. _Deidara!_ Are you even listening to me?!" A shadow fell across the sheet he was working on and he looked up sheepishly to see the teacher standing over him.

"Uh...Yeah?"

She sighed, shaking her head in exasperation. "As wonderful as your sketches may be, this is hardly the place for them, is it?" Reaching down, the woman tilted the paper to get a better look at what her pupil had been drawing. A small smile told Deidara that he wasn't going to get into trouble over this one, not that he'd expected to; after having Ms Strachan teach all his RE lessons since Year seven she was too fond of him to get annoyed.

"Hmm, very nice, but not much to do with Kant there. How are you going to do the project if you haven't listened?"

The blonde gaped at her for a moment. "We have a project? On Kant?" A nod affirmed it and he groaned. "Okay, what do I have to do?" A piece of paper was placed on top of his drawing, headed with a question on The Categorical Imperative, and demanding a twelve slide presentation. Deidara groaned again; PowerPoint was not his forte and to be honest he'd have preferred a straight forward essay. Then another line caught his eye; **Work in pairs**.

Hastily the blonde looked around the class room at the other nine occupants. To his dismay, eight had already shifted to sit next to each other and were discussing the work. That only left...

Ms Strachan deserved a medal for resisting the _Puppy Eyes of Doom_.

"Can I work on my own?"

She sighed. "_No_ Deidara!"

"But..." Deidara snuck another glance at his soon-to-be work partner. "But it's _him_."

"I'm well aware of who it is. Now, give him a chance, it's only until the presentation's finished." Not giving him chance to reply, the teacher left to answer someone else's question.

Deidara considered smacking his head on the desk. Hard. Karma was biting him in the butt right now; not only was the presentation on something he hated, but to cap it off he was being forced to work with _him_. Itachi Uchiha.

The much feared and very much hated Itachi Uchiha.

Deidara knew the stories surrounding his fellow class mate - you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't. The dark and mysterious personality that was the eldest of the Uchiha brothers was the cause of much speculation and gossip throughout the school and college, even though he had only started sixth form a year ago. Even teachers were wary of the young man, with many showing it openly. No-one was sure about the truth behind the rumours although it was generally a given that Itachi had something different about him, something _weird_. That 'weirdness' had been proven a 

year ago when another student - an Uchiha at that – had done what no other dared and tried to bully Itachi.

What had happened had gone down in school history. The silent, unobtrusive Itachi had finally snapped in the middle of the cafeteria – just after Shisui had thrown his lunch on the floor – and had stood up snarling out what sounded like a death curse before storming off. People had laughed it off; Shisui included, and claimed it was just more proof of the other Uchiha's insanity. No-one could have been prepared for coming into school two days later to find that Shisui – the hyperactive and ever so popular Shisui – had hung himself from one of the lamp-posts. No suicide note was found, but CCTV showed that he had been alone and it was his own action, not forced by an outside party.

Even so, after that, Itachi went from being mocked and laughed at, to feared and hated. Whilst some said it had been a forced suicide, the general consensus was that it had been the curse, despite no evidence and rumours ranged from Itachi having supernatural powers, to being the son of the devil. After that anything that happened that couldn't be explained was all blamed on the Uchiha. From people tripping down stairs to all the light bulbs in the history department mysteriously smashing halfway through a lesson, Itachi was said to be the cause.

To be honest it was hard to see how he was even related to the most popular person in school, let alone the fact that he was his brother. Sasuke Uchiha had joined the school in Year seven along with the rest of his age-group, and had been just another midget to tease and give wrong directions to. Then, somewhere between then and Year nine, he had suddenly shot up in the popularity stakes. Now in year eleven he was easily the most admired person in school, even having the sixth form girls all over him. And he'd never once mentioned having an older brother. It had come as a surprise to many when Sasuke had arrived on the first day in year ten with another Uchiha, and then a bigger surprise still when they found out that the silent figure dressed all in black beside him was actually _related_. Generally a sibling in sixth form was a thing to be admired, but Sasuke made it very clear that he hated his older brother, and it hadn't taken long for the rest of the school to find out why. In a nutshell, Itachi was not a person to be associated with. _Ever!_

And it was this Prince of Darkness that Deidara was going to have to work with. Bloody _brilliant!!_

He slowly left his seat and moved to the front of the class where Itachi always sat. Eyes followed his progress and he could feel waves of sympathy rolling off his class-mates as he sat down heavily in the chair next to his new partner.

_Come on Dei, it's not like you even believe in supernatural crap anyway._ An inner voice supplied. _That suicide was a freaky coincidence and he's just a very weird, antisocial person. You know curses and stuff can't exist, so just get this over with and do the work._

"Uh...hi?" Deidara said hopefully, as no acknowledgement was made of his presence. "There isn't anyone else so I was told to work with you." He was met with chilly silence as Itachi continued to read the assignment sheet. "Um, so...how should we start this thing then?"

"Did you not listen to a word the teacher said or were you too busy drawing sparrows?" Itachi's voice was monotonous and low as he spoke without looking up.

Deidara stared at him. He'd been sitting at the back of the room and on the other side to the Uchiha, there was no _way_ that Itachi could have seen what he was doing. His general view of the Uchiha's freakiness went up a notch.

"I..I _did_ listen!" He managed to spit back, "_Mostly_!" This was shaping up to be the project from hell!

The bell went, indicating that lunch had begun, and Itachi stood up, gracefully swinging his bag over one shoulder – Deidara could have sworn the Uchiha hadn't moved during their brief exchange, yet had somehow packed all his stuff up. Weird!

He followed the dark haired boy's example and shoved everything into his shabby backpack. As he stood he saw his project partner waiting expectantly and groaned inwardly. He had a nasty feeling about what was coming next, Itachi was known for being a bookworm...

"We should go work on this in the library."

Wow. Psychic or what?

"No." A dark eyebrow raised in question and Deidara glared at him. "I hate the library!" He marched out of the room. "We'll work in the Beach-hut."

Itachi sighed heavily.

The Beach-hut was a real oddity.

Any other school would have labelled it the sixth form common room, but not here. Whilst it did serve as the common room, it was technically a Porte-cabin that had been filled with chairs, tables and an impressive sound system. The name had arisen in its first few weeks when Mr Beach had been made head of sixth form. His office had been in the Porte-cabin and some wise-ass had dubbed it the Beach-hut as a joke. And it _stuck._

students loved it. – it was warm, was a great place to chat and even had a small cafeteria at one end – Itachi hated the place though.

As Deidara pushed the door open and ushered him inside he could sense the stares even before his eyes adjusted to the dimness of the low-energy lighting. Whispers flew around the large room as he silently followed the blonde to a table by the window. Although it could seat up to twelve, the four people there immediately grabbed up their stuff and moved to another work surface, leaving it to just the two of them.

"Well, that's handy." Deidara said with fake enthusiasm as he took one of the vacated seats. He folded his arms and rested them on the table top. "So, how should we start?"

Itachi had begun hauling heavy text books from his bag, each on different aspects of Utilitarianism. He barely glanced up at the question and answered it with one of his own.

"Do you know anything about this topic at all?" His voice was low and monotonous, like he didn't actually care for Deidara's opinion.

The blond sniffed haughtily. " 'course I do! It's something about not using people as means to an end."

"And..?"

"And...Some sort of imperative, which...look! I can remember the dicks name; surely that's enough for the exam board?"

He look on Itachi's face clearly indicated that it wasn't enough, but he didn't press the matter, turning his attention back to his text book instead. Deidara peered over his impassive class-mates shoulder to see page upon page of blocky text. He sighed and pulled out his sketch pad to begin doodling as he always did. It wasn't going to get the work done any time soon, but that had never bothered him before so he set to placing his imagination down on paper.

Nearly an hour had passed when the bell for the end of lunch rang, making Itachi jump and lose his place in the tiny print. He hadn't noticed the time flying like that, and frowned at the realisation that they'd not made a start on the wretched project yet. Turning to the oblivious blond beside him, the Uchiha was about to comment on this error when he saw what Deidara had been up to.

The page of the sketch book was covered in beautifully detailed drawings of Itachi himself, sitting as he had been with his work. The one currently being worked on was of the moment the bell had rung, and it captured his sudden surprise wonderfully – and accurately the Uchiha noticed with chagrin.

"You're staring." Deidara didn't move from his intent sketching, but the comment was obviously directed at his silent watcher. After a few moments of heavy silence, in which he could still feel the weight of Itachi's gaze he turned his head to look up at the raven-haired student, irritably brushing his long fringe away to do so. "Yo, Witch-doctor, will you quit it? You're putting me off!"

Itachi tore his gaze away from the artwork to meet angry blue eyes – well, one eye anyway, the other was hidden behind that ridiculously long side fringe. He bowed his head slightly.

"My apologies. I didn't mean to disturb you, but the bell has gone and we haven't done a thing. I suggest we meet up later to work on it."

Deidara raised an incredulous eye-brow at the formality of the statement. "Uh, yeah. Whatever." He pretty much ignored his class mate as he stuffed the pencil tin and sketch book into his bag. "See you round." He called casually over his shoulder, abandoning the table and making a bee-line for the door.

The Uchiha watched his departure wistfully. How long had it been since he'd had someone willingly spend that much time in the same vicinity as himself? Too long probably, and it showed. He winced at the memory of his own parting remark, and the awful formality of it. And therein lay the problem. How was he supposed to know what to say to people if he never had people to talk with? Small wonder Deidara had looked at him so strangely – he'd sounded like he'd jumped out of the Victorian era! Still, the blonde had said 'see you round'. Did that mean he actually didn't _mind_ having to meet up again?

Itachi sighed and shook his head with a wry smile. Of course it didn't mean that, it had just been Deidara's way of saying 'goodbye'. It would be foolish to hope that someone would actually wish to see him again. Those sort of hopes just led to painful disappointments, he knew all too well from experience.

Unaware of the scrutiny with which his casual remark was being examined, Deidara breezed happily into his art class. Swinging his bag onto one of the paint-stained desks, then bounding over the chair he headed to the kiln.

There it was, just as he'd left it a day ago – a clay starling roughly life sized, and made in intricate detail. He took it down reverently and dusted the wings off. Perfect.

A space had already been cleared in the centre of the room for this enterprise. Three video cameras had been set up on a tripod in a traffic-light formation, all three linked to each other. The art-teacher had not been very happy with Deidara's idea, but by A-level he could technically do what he wanted, so she'd grudgingly permitted it.

Now the other seven students in the class crowded round as the hyperactive blond aligned the three cameras's and set them to shoot. Standing over the set up, Deidara held his creation in line with the lenses as the teacher started the cameras recording.

Then he let the clay model go.

Little wings whistling through the air, the starling tumbled down, head over heels. There was a moment where the world seemed to stand still when one wing-tip kissed the dirty ground, then the sculpture exploded. Thousands of clay fragments flew in every direction and Deidara let out an excited whoop.

"Now _that_ is art!"

The teacher sighed, stopping the filming equipment. Unplugging the cameras she handed all three to her destruction-loving student and shooed him out of the class room. Fifteen minutes into the lesson and she'd already had more of him then she could deal with at any one time.

Deidara spent the last few hours of the school day selecting screen-caps of the destruction and printing them off. He'd succeeded in printing nearly eleven sheets of the photos in colour before the librarian caught on and kicked him out for wasting ink.

Now he sat in the Beach Hut, an A3 sketch book open in front of him and the photos scattered around in various states of completion. Scraps of paper littered the desk from where the pictures had been cut out, a majority of the pieces glued down from his over-enthusiastic Pritt-stick™ usage and general clumsiness when it came to all things sticky.

A shadow fell over him as he stuck the last photo – the point of explosion – down in his book. He looked up to see Itachi standing by the desk, staring at his art-work.

"The frailty of life." The Uchiha stated quietly, meeting Deidara's questioning gaze.

The blond frowned and looked back at the montage, then up again.

"How did you know...? I haven't written the title yet." He stared at the other student, head tilted to one side in confusion and just the slightest bit of concern. "I only came up with the idea myself about five minutes ago!"

Itachi let his gaze wander over the page again. "It seemed obvious, that's all." He replied. "The brief moment of flight in which life is truly lived, but which inevitably leads to destruction. A metaphor, I would guess, for human existence? We always think we're flying when in truth all we're actually doing is spiralling into our own doom. We think we have control on our lives, yet we're the ones _being _controlled. And perhaps what you want to say most is that no matter how high someone starts, or what sort of flight their life is, it all leads to the same end." He tapped his finger on the moment of explosion, looking up to meet Deidara's stunned gaze. "But I'll also guess that you came up with this theory _after_ the initial idea. You just wanted to destroy stuff really, and you wrapped it up in philosophical meaning to convince the art teacher that it means something."

Deidara could only stare.

"How did..." He shook his head disbelievingly. "How could you _know_ that?! Even the teacher couldn't see it, and she's got a degree in making this sort of bullshit up!"

All he got was a shrug and an: "It was obvious." From the impassive Uchiha.

"Well..." Was all the blond could manage. "Uh, well done." He'd gone slightly red, and coughed hurriedly in an attempt to cover it. "Um, very poetic description though, English student?"

Itachi gave another small one-shouldered shrug. "I took English literature and language for my IB."

"Oh." Deidara chased out an air-bubble from under one of the photos, then his brain caught up. "Wait! What? IB? You've already _got_ qualifications?! How come? And why the international baccalaureate, why not A-levels? How _old _are you if you've already got them-"

"Do you want an answer or are you going just keep asking questions?" Taking the vacant seat next to the artist, Itachi folded his arms on the tabletop and looked at him with an amused glint in his dark eyes.

Deidara glared. "Fine then, start with that lot, then I'll ask more." He replied grouchily.

"And why would you want to know anything about me? You've never said a word to me before today." His voice was as steady and monotonous as ever, but there was a flash of wistfulness across his face. _No-one_ had ever asked personal questions beyond the; 'you know you're a freak, right?'

"Well, we need to work together on this blasted project, so I might as well know who the hell you actually are."

"Other than just a generic sick freak? You and every other kid in this place!" There was spite there now, barely colouring his voice, but noticeable enough.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." The blond shot back. "You've got a chance to convince me you aren't Count Dracula, so go for it!"

The glare that Itachi gave him could only be described as dark, but he nodded.

"Fine then. To start, yes, I took the IB. I've got English, Chemistry, Maths, biology, physics and Mandarin. I didn't do A-levels because I wasn't in Britain, and I'm twenty next summer. Anything _else_ or is that enough for the Spanish Inquisition?"

"No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Deidara grinned, but it withered and died in the face of the Uchiha's glare. He coughed and had the grace to look embarrassed. "Sorry, I'm a big Python fan."

Itachi looked momentarily confused. "Python? I don't understand. You like snakes?"

"Uh, _Monty Python_, y'know, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Life of Brian..." He trailed off at the blank stare he was receiving. "Okay, never mind. So, you've lived out of the country? Where?"

"Japan."

Itachi wasn't expecting Deidara's reaction, and jumped as the blond let out an excited yelp.

"_Japan?!_" His eyes were glowing. "_That's so cool!_ I'm doing part of my art on Japanese culture, and I am _obsessed_ with manga and anime! What's it like? How long were you out there? Can you speak the language? Where abouts were you?-" He broke off and held up his hands in mock surrender at Itachi's overwhelmed look. "Okay, okay, I know; one question at a time." He grinned. "So, to start, how come you were out there?"

"My parents sent me to live with my Great Uncle."

"You're part Japanese then?"

Itachi nodded slowly, not quite sure what to do in the face of Deidara's avid curiosity. No-one had ever cared enough to ask so many personal questions before. "My Grandparents on both my parents sides came to England after World War Two, my parents were family friends before they fell in love and got married. So I'm not part Japanese, I'm full. And yes, I speak the language."

Deidara was looking awestruck. "I'd _love_ to go there one of these days." He sighed wistfully. "Why did your Grandparents leave such a great place?"

The slight hint of openness and friendliness on Itachi's face vanished, and his expression looked hunted. "Because they lived on the outskirts of Nagasaki."

It was almost possible to hear the conversation grind to a halt. It only took a moment for Deidara to realise the implications of what he'd just been told – he hadn't taken A-level history for nothing.

"So they...they were there when..."

"Yes."

He nodded in understanding, since there wasn't really anything to be said. "Um...I'm sorry."

Itachi snorted slightly. "Why? You didn't drop that bomb. In fact, your country had nothing to do with it."

"I'm still sorry."

The Uchiha's glare softened. "Thanks then."

There was an awkward silence for a moment, until Deidara coughed lightly, and picked up his sketch book in a business like way. "Well, this isn't going to get a baby a shirt now is it?" The stare he received in response to the odd statement made him flush. "Uh, my Granny always says that, I meant that if we wanted to get some work done sitting around here won't help." He stretched lazily. "The library's shut so we could go to my place to get this stupid thing finished?"

Itachi looked at the blonde in shock. Deidara kept coming out with surprises; Taking an interest, being friendly, and now an invitation to finish the work at his house. The artist was the first person at the college to actually have a full conversation with the Uchiha in the whole year he'd been there, the social interaction unnerved him.

"Where do you live?" He stalled for time, wondering how best to refuse the offer. He felt too uncomfortable in this situation.

Deidara waved his arm in a random direction. "Next to the rugby club. Why? Is your place nearer?"

"Think so, I live at the top of Mill Hill."

Again the uncomfortable pause hit. Their houses were at opposite ends of the small town, and that distance meant quite a lot. The rugby club end was all ex-council housing – two bedroomed terraces where the immigrants, chavs and general lower classes lived. Itachi's end was all posh five bedroom singles, with huge gardens and even bigger price tags. The class system of old was never more evident than in this housing split – Deidara was automatically placed between lower middle to bottom, whereas Itachi was upper class, no questions asked.

Aware that the silence and awkwardness was his fault, Itachi cleared his throat nervously. When Deidara's gaze swivelled back to fix on him he tried to find a solution to the sticky situation, and chose the lesser of two evils.

"We should go to my place, it's closer." He stated the fact like it was a trivial matter, hiding how thrown he felt with well practised ease. "I can run you home when we're done."

"You drive?"

Deidara only got a nod in reply as Itachi swung his bag onto his shoulder. The conversation was ended with that and the blonde had to grab up his own stuff and scamper after the Uchiha, who swept out of the Beach hut, leaving the poor cleaner staring in dismay at the mess of paper and glue left.

The walk to Itachi's house took them up the large hill their college was situated on, then along the top of it. Deidara knew this area quite well, it was a great place to play as a kid since an abandoned 

railway track ran along part of the road. Things had changed since he'd last been up there though. The long fields that had once separated the housing estate from the duel carriageway that ran parallel to the town were a building site.

It was something he'd heard people at school complaining about, but hadn't seen the full extent of the devastation himself. The green fields that had been a haven for dog-walkers, kite-flyers, dirt-track racers and the occasional band of travellers were now a rubble strewn mess. JCB's tore up the earth in great chunks, until it lay ready for housing foundations to go in.

"A thousand new properties are supposed to go here." Itachi said softly, seeing what had caught Deidara's attention. "All three floor town houses. Our houses will be constantly in the shade." He gestured over to the pre-built display house on the end of the row. Sure enough it was blocking out the sun from the older house across the street.

Deidara nodded gloomily, he was going to miss that field. His thoughts were shaken by a drop of water on his head, causing him to look up at the grey autumnal sky. Another splatter of rain to his cheek pushed him into speeding up and running to Itachi, who had already quickened his pace.

Itachi turned off of the long path and followed the road that now went back down the other side of the hill, Deidara trudging along after him. They turned off the main road and down a side street, the blonde nearly bumping into his companion as the Uchiha stopped outside the second house.

It was in the same style as all those in the area – large, red bricked, with a small garden out front. The crab apple tree was full of fruit, and the tiny red apples had rolled all over the immaculately kept lane and into the road.

But Deidara's interest was immediately sparked by the slate grey Chrysler that sat on the driveway.

"Yours?" He asked, tilting his head towards the car.

"Hmm." Itachi nodded, but didn't reply properly, as he dug around in his pocket his house keys. Producing a set that hung from a small but serviceable key ring, he unlocked the door and stepped inside to turn the alarm off. Deidara followed cautiously, still looking admiringly at the car – it far outranked his beaten-up Corsa.

Once inside the house he followed Itachi's example and slipped off his worn trainers, placing them by the door, his curious gaze sweeping the entrance hall. It wasn't what he'd expected, although since he'd been expecting gothic influence and skulls, that shouldn't have been much of a surprise. Pale green walls, with an old fashioned flowery border circling them at waist height, with a red patterned runner leading from the front door to the foot of the staircase – no, not living up to his expectations, thankfully. Itachi gestured with his head for Deidara to follow, and led the way upstairs.

The blonde followed slowly, his steps hesitant now. What on Earth had made him think this was a good idea?! This was Itachi Uchiha for God's sake! Just because he'd been almost human at college did not mean that he would keep up the act at home. Deidara began to wonder if this was the last mistake he was going to make – after all, from the rumours about Itachi it was even plausible that the Uchiha would now sacrifice him to some ancient demon!

It was too late to contemplate turning and running, as they reached the top of the stairs and Itachi opened the very first door on the left. Dreading what the room was going to be like, Deidara unwillingly trailed him in.

"Holy –"

**Stay tuned...:D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, this took some time, sorry about that! Many thanks to my amazing beta-reader, Anime-loon, without whom I'd be lost at sea. Love you Bean-paste-Chan!**

**This is dedicated to my little sister, since it's her birthday today, and I can't be there. Happy birthday Squid, big hugs coming your way!**

**There's a fanart for this chapter on my Deviantart page if anyone's interested, but other than that all I can say is: ENJOY!**

Chapter 2.

_It was too late to contemplate turning and running, as they reached the top of the stairs and Itachi opened the very first door on the left. Dreading what the room was going to be like, Deidara unwillingly trailed him after him._

"_Holy –"_

He'd been prepared to face anything – a dungeon, a coffin for a bed, black walls, even a Satanic alter, but this...

Itachi glanced over his shoulder, his companion's gobsmacked expression causing him to frown ever so slightly. Seems like Deidara hadn't expected that of him. Why did people always think he was some sort of sick freak? Just because he dressed in black did not make him a Goth. Okay, and that incident with Shisui...Itachi shook his head hurriedly, NO! He was not going to think about his cousin's suicide now, not when he had work to do; the guilt trip would take ages to disperse – distracting him from necessary things. It was probably due to Sasuke that the school had formed such stereotypes about him anyway. The kid hated him, plain and simple. And when the most popular boy in school hates someone, the rest of the world does too.

And now he had found someone who was not only treating him like a human being but had even bolstered up the courage to come to his house to finish some work. Itachi wasn't stupid enough to believe this acquaintance would last – he and Deidara hadn't spoken a word to each other before today – but he wanted to make the best of the moments he had. Friendship was a precious commodity, and one he had sorely missed.

Deidara was still standing in the doorway staring, and it took a few repeats of his name to make him snap out of it and follow his peer into the room. It looked like nothing he'd ever expected of Itachi.

It appeared that the Uchiha had tried to stick to his Japanese roots as much as possible, so that his private space clashed with the western design in the rest of the house. Opposed to the green landing carpet, the floor in here was a light gray – the colour of a rain cloud, and softer. The curtains were open at the window, letting in a small breeze that shook a set of wind chimes enough to allow a few echoing notes to play every now and then. The walls were so well painted to impersonate screens that Deidara had to reach out and touch one to convince himself that were still only plastered breeze blocks.

Itachi had gone for traditional furniture too, incorporating some things Deidara hadn't ever seen before. There didn't appear to be a bed, although a few moments later his eyes registered the futon folded against the wall. It left a lot of space in the middle of the room, which was currently occupied by a low fold-up table littered with sheaves of paper and – he peered closer – scrolls. The low table didn't have any chairs; instead two cushions were placed at either end. A bookcase - crammed tight with all sorts of ring binders and what appeared to be text books - was against one wall, and finally a chest of drawers sat snugly in a corner.

"Not what you expected huh?" Itachi asked finally.

"Not really." Deidara grinned at him, "Okay, I'll admit that I was expecting some sort of gothic dungeon."

The Uchiha rolled his eyes. "I'd worked that out from your expression. You were doing a brilliant impersonation of a rabbit caught in the headlights." He swept some scrolls off the table and sat down cross-legged on one of the cushions. Deidara followed suit, kneeling awkwardly compared to Itachi, who had obviously spent most of his life working at a desk in this style. "Okay, I'd prefer to get most of this done before either of my parents get home and bug us." The Uchiha stated, opening up a slim laptop.

"Sure, whatever." Deidara, now feeling a lot more at ease, pulled out his RE text book and began rifling through the index. Finding the section needed, he balanced the book on his knees and leant forwards with a grin. "So, what are we doing?"

They say time passes quickly when you're having fun. It also seems to run away when you're busy. Deidara jumped when he heard the door downstairs slam shut, and stared at his watch – they'd been working for nearly two hours and he hadn't noticed.

There was a pair of thumps from downstairs – akin to the sound of shoes hitting a wall – then heavy footfalls all the way up the staircase. The unseen person stormed past Itachi's room without looking in, and stamped to the end of the landing, before slamming shut their own bedroom door with enough force to rattle the pictures on the walls.

"It appears my brother's home." Itachi said calmly, without looking up. There was a moment's silence, before Linkin Park's _Crawling _blared out through the house. "And I think his girlfriend has finally dumped him."

"So he's not naturally this emo?" Deidara asked with a grin, putting his text book down and stretching his arms out.

"Only when the occasion calls for it." The Uchiha finished typing in a line to the presentation, then finally raised his gaze. "I think this is done. I've co-ordinated the fonts and background so that they don't clash, and I've managed to put in that Midi file you found on the title page."

Deidara waved a hand airily. "Yeah yeah, as long as it's done." He looked up out the window, and his eyes widened in dismay. "Oh you've gotta be _kidding_ me!"

The light drizzle that had started when they'd reached the house had picked up its pace a bit and decided to go for something a bit more grand. Rain was too minor a word for it. If someone had moved the Niagara Falls to pour over the town it couldn't have been heavier. Deidara stared in alarm – he was going to get _soaked_ walking home in that!

"I said I'd give you a lift home." Itachi seemed to have read his thoughts, as he reminded him of their earlier conversation. He too turned to look out of the window. "Although I might wait until it eases off a bit, I'd rather not aqua-plane onto a main road. Is that okay?"

The blonde nodded, maybe a little too quickly. After all, he hardly knew Itachi, and wasn't going to trust in his unknown driving skills right away. "Sure, if you don't mind me hanging around here."

Itachi shrugged, saving the presentation and shutting his lap-top down. He then proceeded to pick up one of the documents on the table that was unrelated to their work and settled down to read it.

Taking this as a 'dismissed' signal, Deidara decided to occupy himself with drawing – as always. Settling down with his sketch book on his lap, he began to outline a line-art for his newest idea, effortlessly ignoring his silent companion.

For a while the only sounds in the room were the occasional rustle of paper and the scratch of a pencil. It was the sounds _out _of the room that were the problem though. Nearly fifteen minutes passed before Itachi slammed his wad of papers down with a growl that made Deidara jump and look up at him in surprise.

"Right! I have no problem with Linkin Park, but I refuse to listen to Crawling on repeat!" He stood up and stalked over to where a slim black I-pod sat in its speaker system. "Mind if I put some music on to drown that noise out?"

Deidara, who'd been getting pretty annoyed with having the one song blaring through the house, nodded happily. "At this stage, I'd _pay _you to put some music on." He said with a grin. The smile faded a little as he watched Itachi scroll through albums on the music-player, he had no idea what sort of music the Uchiha liked, and had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to be Marilyn Manson.

Still, anything would be better than having one song stuck in his head, and he turned back to his sketch book in resignation. Itachi sat back down next to him apparently having chosen something. There was a second or two of silence before a few gentle notes grew in a crescendo into a familiar set of chords. Deidara's head shot back up.

"Sleeping Sun?"

Itachi looked at him in surprise. "You know it?"

"Hell yeah! I _love _Nightwish! And this is the original version too!" He mouthed along with a few words as it reached the chorus and grinned at his companion. "I didn't think you'd be one to like them."

"Of course. I didn't _you_ would be one to like them."

Deidara nodded enthusiastically. "Sure, the music's great and the words paint a lovely imagery. Who _doesn't _like them?"

"My brother for one." Itachi smiled and picked up the documents he'd been previously reading. "Then again, he never agrees with me."

Having no siblings of his own, Deidara couldn't really reply to that, but was anxious to continue their conversation since they'd seemed to be getting along so well. He looked at the paper-work inquisitively.

"So, what are you doing?"

"Work." The Uchiha looked distinctly bored with whatever he was reading, so glanced up to meet the blue gaze fixed on him.

"What sort of work? School stuff?"

He shook his head once. "No, it's for my job."

Grudging respect lit Deidara's eyes. Although he wasn't currently employed, he'd been in various jobs before, but had _never_ cared enough for any of them to bring the work home with him. "Who do you work for then? Must be a bit of a slave-driver to have you doing paper-work in your free time." He said in sympathy.

Surprisingly, Itachi chuckled in response. "Actually, I'm self employed."

"_What!?_" Gobsmacked would describe Deidara's reaction nicely. He couldn't believe his own ears! How could a nineteen year old already run a business (or so he assumed) whilst still in full-time education?! How could a nineteen year old run a business period? "What do you do?" He stammered.

The small but light hearted grin that had surfaced on Itachi's face vanished, and he looked back at his papers. "Nothing interesting."

Deidara was not the brightest bulb in the box academia-wise, but he had a knack for knowing when and when not to change the subject. Right now his intuition was telling him that Itachi really didn't want to talk about this, but something deeper was giving the feeling that he should press the point anyway. Being impulsive and easily driven by his emotions, Deidara did just that.

"C'mon, it's a major achievement that you've got your own business at your age, of course it's interesting!" The blonde's bright cerulean eyes were sincere as he leaned forward eagerly for an answer. "So spill, what do you do?"

Itachi eyed him warily for a moment, before muttering; "I'm a paranormal researcher."

It seemed that this was a day of one surprise after another for Deidara. He stared blankly for a few seconds, before shaking his head furiously.

"I'm sorry, you're a _what_?"

Itachi wished he'd never said a thing! Just when he was actually getting along with someone he had to open his big fat mouth and incriminate himself again. If the blonde hadn't thought him a freak before he definitely would now! At Deidara's incredulous question he decided that the damage was done so there was no point in beating about the bush.

"In lay-man's terms; I'm a Ghost Hunter."

A long silence followed that statement. Ignoring the now awkward atmosphere, Itachi turned back to his work, fully expecting his companion to leave.

"So...So it's true then?" It was a tiny whisper, but made the Uchiha look back up in surprise. "All those rumours, about the magic and curses and stuff...they're true?" Deidara didn't meet the onyx gaze that was pinned on him as he stared down at his sketch-book.

"Yes." Itachi saw the blondes eyes widen dramatically and expanded slightly. "It's not magic, but I can do all those things, yes." He watched his companions hunched up form and sighed. "You really think I'm a freak now, don't you?"

"What? No!" Deidara's head shot up, exposing troubled blue eyes that surveyed Itachi owlishly from behind the half-curtain of golden hair. "No, I don't think you're a freak, I just...well, I'm not sure if I can believe you or not. I'd like to, if that's any help though."

The Uchiha knew better than most when to listen to his intuition, and right now his was telling him that the blonde was sincere. Still, he had a hard job believing that – so far no one in England had taken him or his profession seriously. There was something else though, something about Deidara made him know intrinsically that the blonde was – in a manner of speaking – on his side. This was a novelty; usually his side consisted only of fellow 'freaks'. Deciding to give Deidara the benefit of the doubt he took the spoon out of the empty cereal bowl he'd left on the table from breakfast.

"Okay, watch." He said quietly. Ignoring the scepticism on his companions face, he focused on the task in hand.

Deidara was trying not to feel cheated at what was obviously going to be the old party trick – hold the spoon in one hand whilst 'gently' rubbing the head to make it bend. Any fool knew that applying enough pressure would do that! On the other hand, Itachi was only holding the spoon, keeping his free hand flat on the table top as his jet eyes focused on the steel implement.

There was a heavy silence in the air as both young men stared at the simple item of cutlery, one in concentration and the other in scepticism.

The absence of noise was shattered by Deidara's startled shriek. The spoon was bending, ever so gracefully, in the middle, with no visible pressure or stimuli except for Itachi's somewhat smug gaze.

"That's...It's..." Deidara gingerly reached out and ran his finger along the new curve, feeling that it was perfectly solid and barely malleable under his touch. "It's like that scene in the Matrix!" He breathed finally. "You're Spoonboy!"

"_Who_?!" Of all the thousands of reactions he'd planned for, this was one that had never crossed Itachi's mind; Deidara seemed thrilled at the sight of the utensil curling in on itself!

"You've never seen The Matrix?" Deidara seemed unable to curb his enthusiasm as his eyes left the spoon momentarily to meet the Uchiha's confused gaze. "It's a great film! And there's this kid called Spoonboy who does that!" He pointed at the implement. "That's incredible! Where did you learn how to do it?"

"Uh, my uncle taught me..." Itachi was completely thrown by the blonde's evident excitement. "You...you don't think this is weird or anything?"

Deidara laughed, looking up at him again. "Weird? Of _course_ it's bloody weird! That's what's so cool about it!" He grinned. "What else can you do? If you're a ghost hunter can you perform exorcisms? And what about summoning spirits? ESP-?" Seeing Itachi's befuddled expression, the blonde went red. "Sorry, I'm doing it again aren't I? I _always_ get carried away! And I'm being far too nosey; I've made you feel uncomfortable." He dipped his head in a small bow. "Gomen, Itachi-san."

To say that Itachi was surprised was a gross understatement! He was absolutely _stunned_ that Deidara was expressing an interest in his abilities and job.

"Uh, no, It's fine, I don't mind." He put the mangled spoon down on the table, and was about to expand on Deidara's interest when his brain finally caught up with his ears. "_Gomen_? How do you know Japanese? And you put the correct honorific on my name too!"

The happy grin he received in return for that statement confused him even more.

"I told you earlier; I love anime and manga. "Deidara chirped. "I pick up random words here and there! I was worried about getting the honorific wrong though; I heard that could be quite offensive."

"No, no you were right." Itachi replied slowly. "And to answer the questions; Yes I can exorcise spirits, yes I can summon them in certain circumstances, and my ESP is abysmal."

It seemed that the spoon-bending demonstration was all that had been needed to convince Deidara of his companion's sincerity, and now he stared in unabashed awe. "That's so _cool_!"

Itachi felt an unaccustomed pride at those words, yes it _was_ cool, and it was nice to have someone else acknowledge it for once. Thinking about it, he decided that it was high time for him to ask a question or two of his own, and there was a lot he now wanted to know.

"Considering that you obviously believe in them, have _you_ ever seen a ghost?" He asked.

Deidara's cheerful smile faded, and he looked down at his crossed legs. "Kind of." He muttered. He could see that this rather negative way of answering had made Itachi curious, so expanded voluntarily. "I had a dream once; someone came to see me..." He shrugged helplessly. "There's not much to it, but I know that it was real. Just because it was a dream doesn't mean that person didn't speak with me." He met the Uchiha's gaze. "Do you believe me?"

Itachi tilted his head to one side. "I want to. Can you expand a bit on the dream?"

He received a nod in return. "It was about two years ago. I had dropped out of school after my GCSE's and was stacking shelves in the supermarket." Deidara laughed bitterly. "It was a crap job, and paid badly, but I didn't have any other goal in life. Then one night, I had a visitor in my dreams. She told me that I needed to get my act together and do something with my life, since this moping wasn't getting me anywhere. The very next day I went back to the school and enrolled for collage. It was the best choice I ever made, and now when this year's over I'll have A-levels under my belt and will be going to uni. If it wasn't for that dream I'd still be a shelf-stacker with no higher education." His smile had returned, and he turned it on his companion. "I know there's the argument that it could have been my subconciousness, but _I_ know it was real. I don't know how I know it, but there's nothing anyone can say that will persuade me otherwise!" He cast his gaze back down. "That's why I'm fascinated in the paranormal and stuff; I want to see her again, if only to tell her what I've achieved in life now."

"Who is she?" Itachi asked softly.

Deidara sighed, his breath blowing his long fringe back enough for the Uchiha to see the pain in his eyes. "My mum."

"Oh...I'm sorry."

"Don't be." The blonde tried to fix his smile back on, although it was a rather half-hearted one. "You weren't to know. She died about five years ago I suppose, that's quite a long time."

"What happened?" Itachi didn't want to intrude, but there was something about Deidara that told him the blonde _wanted_ to talk about it.

His intuition proved correct, again. Deidara looked up at him briefly, before casting his gaze out of the window at the pouring rain. "We were going to my cousin's garden party." He said quietly. "It was the middle of summer, and we always had a family get-together and barbecue. Mum was wearing her favourite dress," He smiled wistfully, caught in the memory for a moment, then shook his head. "Anyway, we were just leaving and she was fetching her bag from her bedroom." His expression turned guarded, all emotion leaving. "It was no-one's fault, purely an accident. She was wearing high-heels, and there was a loose thread in the carpet at the top of the stairs..." Pained blue eyes sought out shocked onyx ones. "She...She fell. There was nothing Dad or I could do but stand there. I called the ambulance but..." He shook his head again, this time to dispel the first treacherous hints of tears. "They pronounced her dead at the scene."

Itachi, as has already been pointed out, was not the most social of people, and had had few human interactions outside his immediate family and profession since returning to England. Now he was faced with someone who had just spilled their heart to him, and he had no idea how to react. He came into contact with ghosts on an almost daily basis, and was used to working with bereaved people in a professional environment, but had never learnt to deal with a peer who was grieving. Hell, he and Deidara weren't even friends! They hadn't spoken a word to each other until about five hours ago, how was he supposed to know what to do in this situation?

Deidara himself solved the quandary by brushing his hair back from his face, and fixing a small grin on.

"So, that's the story of my epic encounter with the paranormal, what about you." He gestured at the spoon. "How and when did you realise that was possible?"

Itachi refocused his thoughts. "Psychic ability and a link to the paranormal is something of a blood line in my family." He said matter-of-factly. "Most if not all with Uchiha blood have some latent ability. Mine is a lot stronger than normal, which is probably a genetic mutation thanks to my grand-parents exposure to Fat-Man, the bomb. By the time I was thirteen my powers were too strong for me to control, and my parents sent me to live with my Great Uncle Madara, who has spent his life researching these gifts we have."

Deidara had regained his expression of an eager school-child and was nodding enthusiastically. "So is this gift purely a genetic thing, or can anyone do it?"

"Everyone has the intrinsic ability." Itachi replied, fully in lecturing mode. "But nearly everyone will go their whole lives without ever accessing it. Usually those who do, can only do so because – like me – it's a family trait that's nurtured, or have experienced a life changing event that links them to the other side. That could be a near death experience, a religious conversion, or the loss of a loved one. There are many catalysts."

"You're pretty clued up on this."

"I have to be, it's my job."

The blonde nodded thoughtfully. "Did you do this in Japan as well? All this psychic stuff?"

"Yeah, I was part of a team then, not solo." A fond smile crossed Itachi's face. "I worked with my cousin, although he always claimed I worked _for_ him, narcissist jerk." He laughed and picked up a small framed photograph that sat next to his work space, and passed it to Deidara. "That's the whole gang there, the Shibuya Psychic Research Facility, also known as SPR."

Deidara looked over the photo, and ten faces peered back at him, most smiling, two scowling.

"Who are the grumpy-butts?"

Itachi peered over his shoulder to see who he meant, and chuckled. "The insanely tall one is Lin-San, he's a Chinese sorcerer, and the shorter sulky one is my cousin, Shibuya Kazuya-San, although everyone calls him Naru because he's a narcissist prat."

Deidara's finger moved over the glass. "What about the little pixie in the middle?"

"That's Mai-Chan, she's head over heels for Naru, but he doesn't even realise she exists half the time."

"And this ugly one?"

"That's me!"

Deidara burst out laughing at the indignant tone used. "I'm only joking!" He grinned over his shoulder at the peeved Uchiha, handing the photo back. "They look like a nice group of people to work with. I guess it must be lonely doing this sort of work solo."

Itachi shrugged, placing the picture back in its place. "It's not too bad, although I miss having people around who can take care of the aspects I can't do. I have no problem with spirits that are trapped in one place, or are searching for someone, or are lost. I can easily rip a poltergeist out of a haunting if needed, but I can't bring a spirit peace. Many ghosts, British ones especially, just want a funeral, or blessing, and an ordained priest is needed for that usually – I'm not even religious!"

Deidara nodded in understanding, but his mind was already whirring off down other lines of enquiry. "What else _can_ you do though? Ouija boards? Demon circles? Voodoo?..." At the last word he trailed off suddenly, an unsure frown marring his face.

"Yes to all three, what's wrong with that?" Itachi couldn't understand the sudden change in his companion. Worried blue eyes met his own.

"If you can do Voodoo, then that means you can curse people and _that_ means...what did you do to Shisui, _really_?"

Ah.

Itachi had wondered how long it would take for that conversation topic to poke its ugly little head up from the rock he'd hidden it under. If Deidara's painful story was his Mum's death, then this was undoubtedly Itachi's.

Guilt – never quite forgotten, like a latent virus in his mind – built up the dormant flame into a roaring fire again as he thought of his cousin. Of his cousin's suicide.

"I..." God! How was he supposed to broach this with a complete stranger?! He hardly knew Deidara, it was _insane_ that he was even considering telling him something he'd barely even admitted to himself. Then there was that wave of sincerity coming off of the blonde again, the feeling that you could trust him with any secret in the world. "I put a curse on him."

Had he been a lesser man, Itachi would have covered his mouth in horror. He'd just blurted it out without even thinking about it. What was _wrong_ with him?! Trying to cover up the slip he quickly continued;

"But I'm not responsible for his death!"

Deidara's sceptical look said all it all.

Itachi growled in frustration at himself. "Look, he was seriously bugging me, and I reacted badly, okay?"

"_Badly_?!" Deidara exclaimed. "You've just admitted to putting a curse on a guy who subsequently died two days later!"

"Yes, but it wasn't a death curse!" Itachi ran his hand through his hair agitatedly. "If you must know, Shisui couldn't speak a word of Japanese, and that's the language I do all my curses in. He 

correctly assumed that I meant ill when I yelled, what was to his ears at least, a load of gibberish, but didn't realise _what_ I'd cursed him with. Paranoia consumed him, and he assumed the worst. Instead of coming to me and simply asking, he drove himself mad with worry and paranoia, to the extent that he committed suicide."

"So...what _did_ you curse him with then?"

There was a lengthy pause.

"Hair loss."

"_What_?!" Deidara stared at him for a long moment, then burst out laughing. "You've got to be joking! You mean to tell me that the silly guy got so scared that he killed himself, and all that was actually going to happen was he'd lose a few hairs?" He went off in a fresh peal of giggles. "I would feel sorry for the poor bastard if that wasn't so damn funny! I mean, sure it was a tragedy and all, but..."

Once again – and this was swiftly becoming a familiar occurrence – Itachi was stunned into silence by the blonde's easy acceptance. The questioning, and almost threatening aura that had surrounded Deidara up until a moment ago had dissipated into mirth.

"Y'know, I'd assumed it would be something like that anyway." The blonde enigma said happily, wiping tears of laughter away. "I'd had you down as an intrinsically good person, and I'm pretty damn good with snap judgements of people." He grinned at his gobsmacked companion. "I've never been wrong so far, and I'm glad I wasn't this time either."

Itachi shook his head in disbelief. "So you aren't in the least bit perturbed that I indirectly brought about the death of a fellow human being? Not in the _slightest_?"

"Of course not! How were you to know that he was going to hang himself? You've already told me that you can't do ESP."

"Well, yes, but-"

"There you go then, don't feel guilty about something that wasn't your fault!" Deidara chirped, like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Itachi was beginning to feel trapped by the conversation, and searched desperately for an exit. He glanced up at the window, and noted the lighter sky.

"It's stopped raining."

Deidara allowed the topic change and nodded. "It stopped about fifteen minutes ago."

"_What_? You never said anything!"

He grinned at the bemused Uchiha. "Of course not. You would have insisted on driving me home, and we'd never have had this conversation."

Itachi stared, then a small smile curled his own lips. "You were that interested in the paranormal huh?"

"Yup!" Deidara had begun packing his stuff back into his bag, but looked up to give the Uchiha a bright grin. "And I'm glad I did!"

Itachi had to grin as well at that, as he grabbed his car keys and they headed downstairs and out. The conversation in the car was mainly about normal school stuff and music, since the blonde didn't live too far away and there was little point in starting another mammoth conversation only to have to cut it short.

When they reached the Deidara's house, Itachi pulled up on the road, and the blonde left with a cheery 'See you tomorrow.' That left the Uchiha alone with his thoughts for the quick drive back. And they were troublesome thoughts!

Without Deidara there he was now very conscious of how open and out of character he'd been behaving. Something wasn't right with the way he'd just spilled all his secrets like that, and it worried him that he of all people had been caught like that, he'd spent years training _not_ to be! But caught in _what_? An illusion or hypnotism seemed to cover his symptoms, but at the same time he wouldn't be able to remember the incident if either were the case. But even if he were to work out what had got him chattering away like a gossiping girl, he still couldn't be sure who had done it to him. Deidara was out of the question, since he had obviously had no real idea that the paranormal really existed.

Still, hell of a coincidence for that to happen the one time he found someone to talk to about all this. Someone was defiantly screwing with his head!

Parking back on his own drive, Itachi ran back up to his room and turned his laptop on again, connecting his webcam to it. Once it had booted up, he opened the video-conferencing package and typed in an URL.

There was a moment of static before the line fixed and a face formed out of the pixels.

"Good Morning, SPR facility." A sleepy voice greeted in Japanese. Morning? AH, of course. Itachi had to grin wryly. With a nine hour time gap it was currently three in the morning over in the land of the rising sun.

"Morning Naru." He replied, switching to his second language. "What are you still doing in the office?"

The slightly blurry image of Naru yawned and rubbed its eyes in frustration. "Paperwork, we're in the middle of a tough case. What did you want?"

Itachi smirked at that; no 'how are you' or anything. Still, he'd have been like that at three AM too.

"I just wanted an opinion on something, but if this is a bad time..?"

Naru waved his hand irritably. "No, no it's fine. Go ahead."

Itachi quickly explained his worries concerning his change in personality, briefly mentioning Deidara, since it was the blonde's company that made him realise something was wrong.

"Hn, you sure you aren't possessed?" Naru mumbled sleepily.

"Positive, don't patronize me!"

"Okay, whatever." The ghost hunter sighed. "So you were normal this morning, then began acting oddly a later in the day, it becoming especially noticeable when this Deidara person was round?"

"That's right. I mean, for God's sake! I told him about Shisui and everything! I even did the spoon bending trick!" Itachi ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "This isn't like me at all!"

"You do know that people with ESP can influence the minds of those around them right? Especially people like you who _don't_ have it."

The Uchiha nodded. "Of course I do, what's your point?"

Naru yawned widely again, propping his head up on one hand. "Did it not occur to you that Deidara could unknowingly be psychic?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, I've had some amazing reviews that have had me jumping round my room in happiness, but at the same time I've had some people query the school system. I guess since most of you wonderful readers are American, I'll have to explain how things work in our little isle :D **

**Right then, in Britain we go through school in year groups, and there aren't really any end of year exams. But in year 11 (age 16) we have GCSE's, a whole load of exams in every subject, testing what we've learnt throughout the whole of school. After these, school is no longer compulsory, but we can go on to college (as Itachi and Deidara have done) where you do an advanced set of exams - 'A' levels. These are necessary to get into a university. The IB (international Baccalaureate) is a system that is equivalent to A levels and is also accepted by universities. A levels, however, are a purely British thing, whereas the IB is done in other countries – hence why Itachi did it; he wasn't in England at the time.**

**This is dedicated to my beta-reader, anime-loon, whom I won't see for ages. Love you and miss you my awesome bean-paste-chan!! And this is also for Squid, whom I will see again today at last!!**

**Link to fanart on my profile.**

"_You do know that people with ESP can influence the minds of those around them right? Especially people like you who don't have it."_

_The Uchiha nodded. "Of course I do, what's your point?"_

_Naru yawned widely again, propping his head up on one hand. "Did it not occur to you that Deidara could unknowingly be psychic?"_

The previous night's conversation bugged Itachi the whole mile long walk to school. Could Naru have been right? It seemed like a huge coincidence, and he didn't exactly believe in coincidences anymore. But it explained why he'd been acting so unlike his normal self – if Deidara _was_ psychic then he would be able to unconsciously manipulate his own aura to make people trust him.

Damnit surely he would have _noticed_ if the blonde had been doing that! He was _trained_ to notice those sorts of things!

Itachi snarled and turned the volume on his I-pod up to full in the hope of drowning out the annoying internal voice that kept asking these questions. It was still raining as he reached the college, so as always he decided to pass the time until registration in the Beach Hut. His normal stigma against the place didn't really apply to mornings, since no-one in sixth form tended to arrive as early as he did and he more or less had the place to himself.

The notice board drew his attention and had he been a less stoic person he would have groaned; the RE teacher was ill and had left work for the class. This usually wasn't an issue, but his teacher had a habit of leaving huge articles that weren't even relevant to the course for them to read.

_Is that really why you're pissed at the lesson being cancelled?_

Itachi slammed his books down on one of the desks, making the only other person in the room – a timid year twelve student – jump violently and stare at him with wide eyes. He ignored her and picked up the useless article to begin reading it; the more he did now, the less he'd have to do in the actual lesson period. Anything to keep that little voice from whispering that it would have been the only lesson in the day he shared with a certain blonde enigma.

Quickly immersing himself in the study of utilitarianism, the Uchiha didn't pay any attention when he heard someone else enter the common room. However, he was forced to look up when a soaking wet bag was dropped onto the table right next to him and someone flopped into the chair besides his.

"Morning!" Deidara grinned cheerfully, pushing sodden hair back behind his ears. "Bit wet out there, huh?"

Itachi stared, and for two very good reasons. Firstly, he hadn't expected Deidara to remain friendly and had assumed they would have gone back to being casual acquaintances. The second reason was one he found a little easier to put words around.

"You look like a drowned rat."

Deidara's jaw dropped for a moment, then he began laughing. "Well _you_ have an umbrella! And I don't look _that_ bad!" He glanced over at the board and saw the work set for them. "Alright! Free period!"

"We still have to read the article." Itachi stated, pushing one over the table to the blonde. Deidara only gave it a cursory glance before throwing it into his wet bag. "Nah, I never read these things." He grinned at the raised eyebrow he received in reply. "They're so dull! How can you even bother?"

Itachi sighed inwardly, just his luck that the only person wanting to talk to him was a slacker. "I need to get straight A's."

"Why?"

Was Deidara _stupid_ or something?

"To get into university."

"Yeah, but I'll bet you've already got good grades from your IB, _and_ you did all the hard subjects!" The blonde pulled an apple out of his bag and began munching on it. "Why do you need _more_ qualifications?" He asked with his mouth full. "Which uni needs you to be that smart?"

Itachi tried not to look irritated at the question. "Harvard med-school."

Deidara choked and Itachi had to slap him on the back to dislodge the piece of apple from his throat.

"_H_-_Harvard med-school??_" He gasped, as soon as he could speak. "As in _the_ Harvard?!" The awe on Deidara's face was almost comical as Itachi nodded slowly.

"Yes, 'the' Harvard, as in the one in America. I'm going to train to be a neurosurgeon."

Mouth open, eyes wide – Deidara looked like a rather attractive bowling ball.

Itachi began to feel uncomfortable under the awed gaze, and cleared his throat nervously.

"So, do you know which uni you're going to?"

The blonde snapped out of his stupor and his blue eyes lit up as he nodded enthusiastically.

"Sure, I'm going to Nottingham Trent." He waved his hands around animatedly, trying to get his point across. "I'm going to do an art foundation course, then a full degree the year after. I want to specialise in sculpture and photography."

"That's...a strange combination."

"Oh no, not if I destroy my sculptures in an artistic way, and take photos of the result, like with the bird yesterday. Or I-"

Itachi realised that he wasn't actually listening any more. Deidara had gone off into his own little world, talking of things that made sense only to his artistic mind. And the Uchiha found himself feeling strangely jealous, an emotion he was unaccustomed to having. Deidara didn't have a high aim in life; he wanted to be an artist, that was all. Not a politician, or doctor, not someone who's job made a _difference_ in the world. Just an artist. And he was so _excited_ at the idea! He obviously couldn't wait to start his foundation course – even though it was at a university that was barely known, and not on any decent league table. An old polytechnic, and he was _proud_ to be going there, proud enough to be unable to stop talking about it.

Itachi found himself wishing that he could have the same enthusiasm for his own future, and jealousy flared up when he realised that he never could. He was a born genius, so his parents had decided for him what he was to do with such intellect. Being a neurosurgeon would be interesting and a challenge, but he wasn't passionate about it like Deidara was for his chosen course, and that comparison made him feel a little bitter.

Both were stirred – Itachi from his brooding and Deidara from his hyperactive soliloquy – by the bell for registration.

"Crap!" Deidara practically flew out of his chair, "Sarutobi hates it if we're late!"

Itachi barely had time to hear the words before his companion was a disappearing blonde blur. He sighed – knowing that was probably the only chance he would have all day to talk with Deidara – and left the Beach Hut at a much more sedate pace. His tutor was one of the less-liable-to-kill-you types, and being a few minutes late wouldn't matter. He pitied Deidara though, everyone knew that Sarutobi – the deputy head – was a strict man and had no time for idleness. It was a school theory that if he was your tutor, then you'd done something very bad in a past life. Itachi didn't believe in reincarnation, but he could see where the idea came from.

Poor Deidara.

'Poor Deidara' didn't actually need to be pitied. He had made it in time to receive a glare from his tutor, but no angry tirade, and now he was in art.

Completely unaware of the classroom around him, the blonde's whole world narrowed down to the clay he was working with. A shape was growing out of the mass of grey, a proud head slowly forming and rising. A pair of wings followed, feather markings delicately inscribed along their edges. A tail was the last to be lovingly sculpted into life, its solid weight balancing the creation. Then was 

the tricky part; feathers, eyes, scales, all were painstakingly etched into the smooth surface, until at last a falcon stood proudly on the table, wings unfurled and head thrown back in a triumphant cry of victory.

It was only when he was clearing the area around the bird that Deidara felt the pair of eyes watching him. He sighed irritably, knowing full well who it was, and wishing that he could throw a lump of clay at their head.

"That looks great Deidara!"

Predictable as always!

Deidara raised his head to glare at his antagonist. A vision in blue and black met his gaze, ignoring the death glare.

This happened every art lesson, and with increasing frequency out of the class as well.

"Do you need something Konan?" He snapped.

Konan didn't take the bait at his raised voice, and just smiled at the grumpy blonde. "No, I just wanted to say that you've done really well with that, it really looks life-like."

"Well, you've said it, do you need to keep bothering me?"

Now, most – if not _all_ – of the guys in the collage wouldn't be able to understand Deidara's problem here. Konan wasn't your average girl and that made her very popular. A mix between punk and Goth, she was instantly recognisable by her bright blue hair that had been dyed since year eleven. And she was lovely. Vivacious, friendly, kind; in general the best sort of person to go out with.

People just couldn't understand why Deidara had such a problem with her attention. She wasn't forcing herself on him like some girls did, and she had very similar interests as he did. But no, he was cold, indifferent and at times plain nasty to her.

Like now for instance.

Much to his dismay, Konan sat down in the seat next to his, watching as he fiddled with the angle on one of the wings.

"Chosen which arts college you're going to yet?" She asked, quietly enough so as not to ruin his concentration, but loud enough to make sure he couldn't ignore her.

"Hn."

Well, that was the theory anyway. It seemed that Deidara was blanking her.

"Um, I've applied to the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design." Konan continued, still attempting to get a reaction.

"Good for you." Deidara couldn't be bothered with the hassle of pretending that she didn't exist, so went back to the original plan of being an ass-hole. A quick glance towards the girl showed him that he was doing well; she was looking slightly dismayed at his curt answer.

"Do you still want to go to Nott's Trent?"

For the love of God! The nuisance just wouldn't take a hint!

"Yes."

She smiled again, happy to have got a response at all. "That's great! I've heard it's very good for art and design."

"Whatever."

Deidara picked up a scalpel-like implement to score delicate feather patterns around the birds beak, wishing his aggravator would just _leave _already! There was a blessed silence for a few moments, and he almost hoped that he'd been left alone. But no.

"Um, have you seen the new Indiana Jones film yet?" There was a hesitance to Konan's voice now that – had he been really paying attention – Deidara should have picked up on.

"Not yet."

"Well, I'm going to see it with a group of friends tonight." Konan shyly twisted her hands in her sleeves – an action that was quite out of character for her, and this time Deidara did feel the nervousness pouring off the girl. "Uh...would you like to come with us?"

He looked up sharply, only to realise that she was now refusing to meet his gaze. That was pretty much an invitation to go on a date, and he scowled. This hadn't happened before. Sure, she was always badgering him, but asking him out was a first. And if he handled, this right it would be a last too.

"No."

She looked up, more puzzled than hurt. "Maybe another night then?"

"No."

"Well how about bowling if you don't want to see a movie? Or paintball-"

"NO!" A few people in the class glanced their way at Deidara's raised voice. "Leave me alone Konan, I'm busy and I don't want to go anywhere with you!" He angrily shoved his pencil-case into his bag, and pulled his jacket on.

"Oh." Konan backed away a little, eyes downcast again. "Alright. I understand."

"Good!" The blonde swung his bag onto his back and rose from his seat, scooping his creation up. Marching over to the drying-racks, he labelled the little falcon and placed it on the side to await firing in the kiln.

Job done, he turned to leave, when a voice called him back.

"Wait, Deidara!"

Konan. _Again!_

Deidara snarled, turning back. Okay, he was _officially_ at the end of his tether with this girl now!

"For God's sake Konan! I don't want to talk to you, you stupid bitch!" He shouted as she approached him. "I don't like you, I won't ever like you and I don't want to be associated with you, now _leave me the fuck alone!_"

There was a stunned silence across the classroom.

"I...I was only going to say that you'd forgotten your sketch-book." Konan's voice was trembling, and it was only when she said that did Deidara notice the large red folder cradled in her arms. She thrust it into his hands and pushed past him – running out of the classroom.

Deidara stood there, clutching the sketch-book and feeling like the world's biggest ass-hole as the rest of the class glared at him. Being a sixth form lesson, there wasn't a teacher present – and for that he was eternally grateful; he'd have been in deep shit had there been one!

Not waiting for one of his classmates to say anything, he turned and left the room, unconsciously following Konan's footsteps as he trudged back to the Beach Hut.

Opening the door he was met with the quiet and comforting babble that told him the place was near empty, since most people were still in lessons. A small group of girls in the far corner glared at him and he figured that Konan must have come back here too. A wave of relief washed through him as he scanned the mostly empty room and spotted a head of familiar raven black.

Itachi looked up and met his gaze calmly, although Deidara hadn't yet made any move to announce his presence. The blonde ignored the tingling feeling of unease he got at the idea that the Uchiha must have sensed him, and stormed over to slump in the chair next to his peer.

"What did you do to Konan?"

Straight out, just like that!

Deidara stared at him blankly. "How did you know-?" He stopped, then scowled. "Hey! I don't care what mystical hocus-pocus you've got, but keep the hell out of my head!"

Itachi regarded him in faint amusement. "Deidara, I told you yesterday that my ESP is minimal at best. There's no way I could read your thoughts. As for how I knew something had happened: Konan came running in here about ten seconds before you did, in tears. She grabbed one of her girl-friends and the disappeared into the toilets. She probably wanted to cry where no-one could see her. And I knew it was _you_ responsible since the rest of her friends-" He nodded over at the gaggle of girls in the corner, "-Began muttering, and I heard your name. The rest was putting two and two together."

Deidara nodded slowly. "Okay, I'm sorry I snapped. This just isn't my day!" He lowered his head to rest on the table-top. "Yeah, I upset her, and I don't seem to have learnt since I just got shirty with you too." He sighed.

"Want to tell me what happened?"

"There's not much to tell, she's just so...so _aggravating_!"

Itachi frowned slightly. "She's always seemed pretty nice. She's never been rude or malicious like many girls are." He shrugged. "But then again, I wouldn't know very well, I've never actually spoken with her. Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Deidara quickly explained what had happened in the lesson. To his credit, he didn't embroider the story, and told it as it was – contrite enough to admit to his own pigheadedness. Itachi remained silent throughout, only nodding now and then to keep the blonde talking.

"So, yeah, that's all of it." Deidara finished lamely. He looked up at his companion, wondering what Itachi would think of his rather cruel attitude towards his blue-haired admirer.

The Uchiha watched the embarrassment and stubbornness war on Deidara's face, before giving his verdict. "I'll admit that I haven't known you for long – if you can call two days long – but snapping out at someone like that when they were only trying to be friendly doesn't seem like the sort of thing you'd do. What's the issue with her?"

Deidara scowled, slumping down in the chair and letting his long side-fringe swing in front of his face.

"Oh it's not _her_ that's really the issue; I just don't want any associations with that wretched brother of hers!"

Brother? Itachi tried to dredge up the very little information about Konan that had seeped into his little self-contained bubble. He didn't recall ever knowing that she had a brother, but since all he really knew was her name, that wasn't such a surprise.

"Okay, start from the beginning." He said firmly.

Deidara huffed moodily, blowing at his fringe as he did so. "Fine. Konan has an older brother. Well, I say older, he's actually our age, but didn't go to college or anything."

Itachi nodded, remembering that Deidara had taken a couple of years out before returning for A-levels, which made him two years older than all the other year thirteen's – minus Itachi of course.

Deidara looked up and saw Itachi's 'well go on then' expression. He sighed, sitting up straighter and dropping the attitude.

"Okay. From the beginning then." He bit his bottom lip thoughtfully as he worked out where to start from. "I guess it started back when I was in year ten." He smiled wistfully. "I was best mates with this guy called Sasori – we'd been friends since play-school. Then in year ten this new guy called Pein joined our class. He was, well...cool, I suppose. A mix of Goth and punk, and always breaking the school uniform regulations – he came into class on his first day with his tie covered in badges of heavy metal bands, and six piercings! Not to mention his _hair_! If you think Konan's is bad, you haven't seen Pein's; it's _orange_!" Deidara chuckled lightly at the thought. "As I say, we were year ten – so in a nutshell hormonal fifteen year olds. Sasori was going through a rebelling stage and Pein became his idol in a matter of days. I didn't mind at first. Sasori let him hang around with us, and it wasn't too bad since he loved breaking rules – and when you're fifteen that's fun. But he began to change Sasori."

Itachi couldn't really do much at this point except nod encouragingly, which he did so at the appropriate moments.

"One day, completely out of the blue, Sasori came in to school with his hair dyed crimson! I mean, he was naturally ginger, but _dying_ it that colour was unnecessary!" Deidara's scowl was back as he continued. "About halfway through the year he started going to all these rock concerts with Pein, 

lying about his age to get in. Not that I have a problem with that – hell, I did it myself enough times! – But Pein was _changing _him. He wasn't the Sasori I knew anymore. He never wanted to talk about art or music or films like we used to, and stopped coming round to my place to play X-box like we used to. All he cared about was stuff like Playboy and...And Marilyn Manson! By year eleven all those two would talk about was which girls they'd like to do, and in some cases had actually slept with. I felt like a spare part! And it's all Pein's fault!"

Itachi felt a twinge of sympathy at that. Maturing was a hard time, and it was natural that friendships would change in accordance to the changes to each person in them. He'd been lucky enough that his uncle had home-tutored him, and he'd been spared the annoyance of having other hormonal teenagers around. It had been a lonely time, but hearing what puberty seemed to do in a normal school environment he was quite glad he'd been well out of it.

"I can understand why you don't like him, but is there any reason you should take out your anger on his sister?" He asked, meeting Deidara's glare with a firm gaze.

"Do you know what Pein does now?" The blonde spat. "He's the leader of one of the town's gangs. That group on bikes that like to tear up the playing-fields and stuff, you heard of them?"

Itachi nodded, a frown creasing his forehead as he tried to imagine Konan being associated with the local hellions. The mental image didn't really work. As much as she was unorthodox and had a wacky taste in hairstyles and clothing, she wasn't a biker-chick by anyone's standards.

"Don't you think it's a little unfair?" The Uchiha voiced his opinion. "You understandably don't like Pein, but isn't taking your dislike out on his little sister a bit harsh?"

Deidara folded his arms mulishly. "No." He realised how mean that sounded and tried to clarify. "Look, she just won't leave me alone! Did you know that she takes art, English and gymnastics? Well I do, and I don't _want_ to know. I don't _care_!"

"It's an odd mix of subjects."

"So? She's an athlete or something. I spent an entire double period of art with her twittering on about how she competes in some stupid sport I've never heard of."

Deidara huffed and irritably brushed his hair away from his face. "Can we change the subject please? I have to deal with her enough in lessons."

Itachi smiled slightly. "If you want. What do you _want _to talk about?"

It looked like Deidara hadn't thought that far. He cast around for a topic, looking out of the window for inspiration. It had stopped raining, and the ground was a sodden quagmire on the field behind the common room. A grin lit up his face when he saw it.

"Wanna play football?"

"_What_?!" Itachi followed his gaze and stared. "It's horrible out there!"

"Uh, yeah, that's the _point_." Deidara jumped to his feet. "Come on, where's the fun if you don't get horribly muddy in the process?"

Itachi shook his head vehemently. "No, I don't play football." That caused his blonde companion to sink back down into his seat in dismay.

"Rugby then? Bulldog?"

"I don't play sports."

Deidara laughed at that. "Oh it's hardly _sport_, it's just a chance to run around, get covered in mud and have a laugh. Didn't you ever do that with that group you used to work with?"

Itachi thought back to his time with SPR. The most they'd ever got up to was Bou-san chasing Mai every now and then. Sure they'd had fun in between work, but it was along the lines of watching a film or some good-natured teasing. They'd never played _games_ beyond cards.

"No." He saw something akin to pity shine in Deidara's bright eyes, and felt that he was letting the side down a little. "They weren't the type of people to do that. Well, maybe Bou-san and John would...and perhaps Yasuhara-san, and we could possibly get the girls involved, but Naru and Lin never would allow it."

"Not even after hours?"

Itachi rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Okay, if you have to know; I _can't_ play rough games like that, alright?"

The blonde watched him silently for a moment, before understanding lit his face. "Oh I _see_. You know, there's no shame in just admitting that you don't know how. "

Itachi gave a small embarrassed grin. "Well, I don't, so can we just stay inside please?"

He received a blinding smile in reply. "Sure." Deidara reached across the table and picked a fork someone had abandoned alongside a plate earlier. "I know how to pass the time."

Itachi looked confused until the utensil was handed to him and the blonde looked at him expectantly. Then he just rolled his eyes.

"_Fine_, but make sure no-one's watching." Once given the all clear, he concentrated and forced the steel to curl.

"Can you tie it in a knot?" The child-like enthusiasm was back in Deidara's voice as he watched in glee. Itachi complied and kept the metal bending until there was a loop that he could force the head of the fork through. Doing so, he put extra stress on both ends to tighten the new feature, then handed it back to his companion.

Deidara laughed delightedly, examining the flawless knot in the solid metal. To anyone who hadn't seen it just happen it looked like the strange quirk was factory made. There was no way a human could technically do that...well, not conventionally anyway.

A loud bell disturbed the two teens, and Itachi looked at his watch. "I've got to go, I have a politics lesson."

Deidara pulled a face. "Bleh! Politics! Have fun with that."

The Uchiha smirked and nodded, before grabbing his stuff and leaving. Deidara opened his art book and began to sketch the destroyed fork, grinning as he did so.

The rest of Itachi's day was uneventful. Without the R.E lesson he only had politics, geography and accounting to get through, which he did with ease.

The weather had gone back to being terrible. The wind had picked up again, and by the time he started to leave at the end of the day it was lashing down with rain. Trudging through ankle-deep puddles, the Uchiha was glad of his umbrella as he made his way to the school bus-park and exit. Younger children pushed past him, some laughing and chasing each other through the down pour, others squealing and holding their blazers over their heads to keep out the worst of the wet.

A flash of bright blonde amidst the green and black uniforms of the lower school caught his eye, and he hurried over to where Deidara was also pushing his way through the screaming crowds of kids who were trying to reach their buses.

"Here."

Deidara looked round in surprise as the rain stopped hitting him, and he grinned when he saw it was Itachi holding the umbrella over him.

"Thanks." He scooted closer in an attempt to stay as dry as possible. "You have a good day?"

"Average."

"Heh, yeah, same here."

Itachi watched as the blonde tried to keep his precious sketch book dry by closing his coat over the top of it.

"That looks awkward."

Deidara laughed. "You have no idea. At least this is only my A4 one; the A3 is a right bugger to carry!" He pushed his wet fringe out of his face. "So, are you going home now?"

Itachi nodded, tilting his head slightly to one side in thought as an idea struck him. "Are you doing anything tonight?" He asked nonchantly.

"Nothing other than the plan for my history essay, why?"

The Uchiha bit his lip, wondering how best to phrase this. "Do you want to come over to mine for a little tonight? I can show you some more stuff my uncle taught me."

Deidara looked stunned, then his whole face lit up. "Really? You mean it? I'd love to!" He looked like Christmas had come early, and Itachi had to laugh at the expression on the blonde's face.

"Great, you have no idea how brilliant it is to find someone I can talk to about this stuff again." The Uchiha said with a warm smile. He tilted the umbrella a little. "Shall we get going?"

However, they'd hardly moved a few steps before a loud noise made them and others around them stop and look towards the school entrance. Kids that had been walking across the bus-park scattered 

with terrified shrieks as a huge Yamaha motor-bike with a souped-up engine careered through the hoards of screaming year sevens and eights.

It weaved about through the crowds a lot more than it needed to, giving the impression that the driver was enjoying nearly running people over. Finally the monster came to a halt at one of the kerbs, and the rider pulled his rain-splattered helmet off to reveal a thick head of bright orange hair, and more piercings than were natural. He left the engine running as he waved over to a person in the stunned mob that was now trying to press closer to have a look at the gleaming bike. A harsh word sent them on their way, and Konan pushed past the water-logged kids to reach the bike's side. She swung her bag high up onto her back and took her place behind the rider, and he turned to speak to her.

It was hard to see in the rain from where Deidara and Itachi stood, but it looked like she was crying again as she replied. The man handed her his helmet – seemingly far more concerned about her safety than his own – and gave her a very quick smile that she returned albeit with little enthusiasm.

He then revved the bike up once Konan had put the helmet on, and began to drive back out. As they passed Deidara and Itachi the bike slowed enough for his dark glare at the blonde to be noticeable.

Deidara shuddered as the bike disappeared out of the school gates.

"Who was that? And why did he look at you like he wanted your head on a spit?" Itachi asked in bemusement.

"_That_ was Pein. And he looked like he wanted my head on a spit because he _does_ want it on a spit."

"Any reason why?"

"Because I upset Konan. I'm in _deep_ shit!" Deidara shook his head. "C'mon, let's go." He muttered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Arghhh!! Sorry! I said I'd have this up sooner, but it seems I'm still updating on the 27****th**** smacks self on the head. Basically my Norton antivirus screwed up big time and I couldn't subject my precious laptop to the horrors of internet viruses without protection so I had to wait to fix it. On the plus side though: DOUBLE UPDATE!! And the moment my absolutely gorgeous beta-reader has sorted out my mistakes I'll have another THREE chapters up in...ooh, give it a week maybe.**

**Thank you so much for sticking with my crazy little story. Every review I've had so far has sent me jumping round the room squealing in joy (my parents think I've gone berserk!). So enjoy these two chapters and please leave a little note if you like/hate/don't care about it :D Constructive criticism is appreciated, and flames will be used to cook food on so I can cut down on my energy bills -**

**Much love hugs and big fat chocolate cookies go to my most amazing beta-reader, Manu-seme, who has had to put up with my increasing number of typos, grammatical errors and general stupid sentence formations. Love you darling, you're doing a brilliant job, and it makes me miss you all the more!**

**And because she'll kill me if I don't, this is once again for my little Squidit, since she has to put up with me bouncing all my stupid ideas off her. Big hugs kiddo!**

**xox**

"_Who was that? And why did he look at you like he wanted your head on a spit?" Itachi asked in bemusement._

"_That was Pein. And he looked like he wanted my head on a spit because he does want it on a spit."_

"_Any reason why?"_

"_Because I upset Konan. I'm in deep shit!" Deidara shook his head. "C'mon, let's go." He muttered._

The motorbike swerved through the traffic with experienced ease, Pein controlling it smoothly as if there wasn't a torrential downpour. They came off the main road and turned down various side-streets, the bike speeding up now that they were in Pein's territory.

They sped up the drive of a small terraced house, coming to a halt at the backdoor. Konan got off the bike and went inside whilst her brother parked up and locked his precious vehicle away in the garage. Once it was secure he followed his sister inside, entering the small kitchen and shaking his head so that drops of water flew everywhere.

"Oi! Watch it!" A voice berated him, and he looked up only for a towel to smack him in the face.

"Do you guys _live_ here or something?" He growled, trying to dry his hair as much as possible with the scrap of fabric. He saw Sasori smirk at him.

"You're the one with the booze." The red head opened the fridge and chucked his friend a can of lager. "C'mon, all the others are in the living room."

Pein rolled his eyes as he cracked the can open and pushed past the red-head to see that his friends had indeed taken over the front room.

Hidan waved lazily from where he was sprawled over the whole two seater sofa, channel surfing. Kakuzu, Kisame and Zetsu were bunched up on the other seat, trying to get Hidan to chose one channel and stick to it. Konan gave a small smile as her brother entered the room, Sasori close behind him.

"Blue's just been telling us that she's had a crap day." Hidan said as a conversational gambit. The girl, sitting down by his feet and still hugging her sketch book, nodded in confirmation.

"I know, and now I want details." Pein kicked his friend's legs off the sofa so that he could sit down too. He put a surprisingly gentle hand on his sister's head. "Okay then Kon tell us from the beginning."

"It's nothing, I'm just being pathetic." Konan said quietly.

"Like hell! Tell us what happened!"

She sighed reluctantly, well aware that once Pein's Protective Older Brother mode was activated, it was impossible to contain him. Slowly the story of The Art Lesson was told, despite Konan's obvious reluctance. The laughter and general joviality in the room dissipated rapidly and by the time Konan had finished a sullen silence had descended on them.

Then Pein's empty lager can hit the coffee table with enough force to make it bounce twice and ricochet off Kakuzu's head.

"_Right!"_

"Pein..." Konan began, but her brother raised his hand to silence her.

"No, you shouldn't have to put up with that!"

"But I don't want you to do anything illegal! You're already in enough trouble with the police!"

"Yeah," Hidan put in. "You shouldn't go doing anything that'll get the cops on your tail again, they're a fucking nuisance to throw off!"

Pein shot the white-haired youth a glare. "You can talk! You're the only one here with an ASBO!" He glanced back to Konan. "Okay, I promise I won't do anything that will catch the police's interest."

She gave him a doubtful look. "You said that last time, and you still beat that guy to a pulp!"

"Yeah, but to be fair he had threatened you, had a knife, _and _was in our territory."

"You still needn't have put him in hospital! You know damn well that I can take care of myself, knife or not!" Konan stood up, brushing the carpet fluff from her skirt. "If you lot want to sit around pretending you're...you're Roman generals or something with all your plotting, then go ahead. If you want me, I'll be upstairs!"

She swept out of the room, leaving just her angry words and the lingering smell of perfume.

Pein shook his head. "She worries too much." He looked around at his silent friends. "Okay, we have a problem lads; someone has insulted and upset _our_ Konan, and I for one won't stand for it!" There was a rumble of agreement, and Hidan sat up properly from his lounging position.

"Are you saying we go have a 'talk' with Blondie?"

Pein smiled grimly with no humour. "That's exactly what I'm saying. Deidara upset my sister, and that is not something we should allow."

Sasori bit his lip, then raised his head. "I know where Deidara lives."

"And he didn't go straight home from college today; we can catch him when he goes home now." Pein continued thoughtfully.

A wicked grin grew on Hidan's face. "That sounds like a plan."

The rain still hadn't let up by the time Itachi and Deidara reached their destination. The blonde had cheered up on the way, and within minutes of leaving the school gates had begun jumping in puddles like a child. Despite that, they had managed to remain mostly dry under Itachi's umbrella but the Uchiha decided that a cup of tea would do them both good when they reached his house.

Deidara sat at the pine table in the kitchen, watching as his host boiled the kettle and carefully poured out two cups of tea.

"Sugar?"

"One please."

The mug was placed infront of him, a teaspoon to stir the sweetener in balanced on the top. Itachi sat down next to him, clutching his own mug to warm his hands.

The Uchiha glanced across towards his companion, grinning when he saw Deidara glaring furiously at the spoon held between his fingers.

"That won't work you know, you need to be calm and focused. And you'll never be able to get a piece of metal to bend first try."

Deidara put the spoon down with a sheepish grin. "I was just wondering if I could."

Itachi echoed the laughter, but in his mind he seriously considered the possibility of the blonde being able to do the trick. After all, there was already the sneaking suspicion that Deidara had some type of telepathy that he was unaware of.

"So, you said there was more of this magic stuff you can do?" Deidara asked hopefully.

Itachi had to grin at his enthusiasm. "Yes I did." He tried to think of a suitably impressive demonstration, although a major part of his knowledge relied more on actions invisible to the human eye and draining on the caster.

"If you can manipulate metal, can you do all the other famous things mystics can do?" Deidara asked.

"Such as...?"

The blonde waggled his hands in a mock mystical way. "Use the force!" He laughed. "I mean can you levitate stuff, or move something without touching it?"

"Yes, but not very well." The expectant smile that was cast on him made him roll his eyes with a sigh. Of course, he should have seen _that_ coming. Looking across the table he saw a placemat lying there, without a cup on it.

Focussing his gaze on the coaster, he slowly built up his concentration.

Deidara let out a delighted yelp as the piece of laminated cork began to drift lazily across the table. It slipped off the edge of the table and fell to the floor with a thud.

"That's so cool!" He exclaimed. "You're a _Jedi_!"

Itachi just grinned in response. In truth the little trick took a lot out of him. Bending spoons was just a matter of manipulating the material they were made of; moving an entire object with no contact to it was a lot harder.

Although there was no visible sign of his mental fatigue, his companion seemed to unknowingly pick up on it. Deidara pushed the Uchiha's cup of tea back into its owner's hands.

"Okay, so you're also Luke Skywalker." The blonde shot a glance at Itachi, remembering the Matrix issue they'd had last time he used a film quote. "Please tell me you know Starwars?"

"Yeah, I know Starwars." Itachi grinned. A thought struck him, and he put his teacup down. "Wait here; I've got something that might interest you."

Deidara nodded, wondering what it could be as his companion quickly left the kitchen and ran upstairs. He didn't have long to wait when Itachi reappeared with an object wrapped in cloth in his hands. The Uchiha placed it on the table and pulled the wrappings off with a flourish.

Whatever Deidara had been expecting, it wasn't really this. A small piece of wood lay on the table, only fifteen centimetres or so in length. The blonde picked it up, turning it over in his hands. Roughly human shaped, it rather put Deidara in mind of the little people they put on road signs. There were no features, but a strip of paper was glued to the chest, denoting the front of the object.

"What is it? A voodoo doll?"

Itachi laughed. "Voodoo? No, I never do anything as crude as that. This is a Hitogota – it's a lot more sophisticated." He sat back down next to Deidara, leaning over the blonde's shoulder to see the figure too.

"So, what does it do?"

"Everything." Itachi pointed to the little strip of paper. "Write a person's name on there and you can do anything to them."

"And how is that different to voodoo?"

The Uchiha rolled his eyes. "Because with this it's possible to save lives, to help people, to protect them." He took the Hitogota from Deidara, turning it over and over in his hands. "This is where my true skill lies. Bending spoons is just a party trick, but with one of these I can do nearly anything."

"Ego much?" Deidara grinned. He looked up at his companion. "So what do you do with one of these then?"

"When a name is written on here it becomes a substitute for that person." Itachi explained. "I can then manipulate it so that anything done to this happens to the real person – yes, like voodoo – or the opposite can happen. If the person is cursed or in extreme cases injured, then I can switch it so that the harm happens to this thing." He waved the little doll.

Deidara frowned slightly. "Still sounds like voodoo to me."

Itachi shook his head with a wry smile. "Well, I can't explain it any better really, hopefully you'll see for yourself one day."

Deidara nodded. "I hope I do."

They were disturbed by the front door opening then slamming shut. A raven-haired figure stormed into the kitchen, making Deidara jump. He stalked right past the table, then did a double take and stared at Deidara.

"Who the hell are you?"

If the blonde wasn't surprised at the rude question, he was shocked at the glare now marring Itachi's face.

"Deidara, this is my kid brother Sasuke. Sasuke, this is Deidara."

Deidara had already recognised the boy, but nodded politely anyway. "Hi."

Sasuke just raised an eyebrow disdainfully. "What are you doing here, hanging out with _this_ freak?" He indicated to his older brother.

Wow, the air was positively _thick_ with feelings of good will and brotherly love.

Deidara looked between the two Uchihas in surprise. Sure, Itachi had said that they didn't get on, but this was...extreme.

"We're working on an RE project." Itachi said shortly.

"And I can hang out with a friend, even if others think he's a little...odd." Deidara added, earning himself a look of surprise from the eldest Uchiha. They'd only really known each other for a few days, and although they were getting along very well, that was the first time it had been acknowledged that their acquaintance was anything other than just project-partners.

Itachi smirked smugly at his younger brother, who glared daggers back. Then the younger noticed the Hitogota in his brother's hand.

"Oh don't tell me you're getting Dei-whatever-the-hell-his-name-is involved in that shit!"

Deidara glared at the little upstart. "Is that a _problem_?"

"Only if you want friends, a life or any self respect." Sasuke spat back. He shot a furious glare at his brother. "How can you drag someone else into this crap Itachi?! You killed Shisui with this! Is that not enough?"

From the look on Itachi's face, the Deidara fully expected the younger Uchiha to drop dead any second now. "Don't speak of something you know nothing about!" He snarled back.

Deidara looked between the two of them, feeling increasingly awkward and lost, as the brothers looked ready to kill each other on the spot. He jumped when Sasuke's next remark was aimed at him.

"Do yourself a favour David, and get the hell away from this ass-hole."

It's _Deidara_! And I see nothing wrong with Itachi thank you very much!"

Sasuke snorted. "Then it'll be your body they cut down from the lamp-post next." He grabbed a J2O from the fridge and stormed out.

An awkward silence reigned after the boy left, until Itachi shifted in his seat and cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry about that; he's not exactly civil to me."

Deidara smiled slightly. "I kinda figured."

The Uchiha stood up, and drained the last of his tea. "Let's go upstairs, I've got something that will really interest you. And it won't be mistaken for voodoo." He added with a grin.

Deidara hurriedly finished his own tea. "Sounds good."

He followed Itachi upstairs into a now-familiar room. The low table was slightly more cluttered than yesterday, but that was the only difference. The Uchiha gestured for him to sit down, which he did, watching as his friend – and he liked to use that term – pulled a box out of the wardrobe and placed it in front of him.

Deidara's inner art fanatic squealed at the gorgeous craftsmanship – dark mahogany, with inlaid mother-of-pearl to make a pattern of dancing Japanese cranes. But the contents were rather disappointing in relation. Nestled in a scrap of deep claret velvet, a piece of copper and a shard of mirror winked up at him.

"Uh...what are they?"

Itachi grinned at his friend's reaction, liking how the word sounded in his head. He had gone on for far too long without any such bonds. It had been just over two years since he'd left Japan, and he missed the cameradie he'd had with his old friends there. "They are exactly what they look like, a bit of metal and a broken mirror."

"You know that's seven years bad luck right?" Deidara cast his gaze over the two pieces of...paraphernalia – he hesitated to use the term junk. "Well, you wouldn't keep these in such a nice box if they weren't important, and you said that they are of great interest, but I fail to see what's so special."

Itachi smiled; glad to see that Deidara wasn't just going to dismiss them because they didn't look like much.

"Then allow me to tell you a story, it should shed some light on the mystery."

Deidara nodded eagerly. He placed the delicate box carefully on the table and made himself more comfortable on the cushion.

"It starts with an ancient Japanese legend."Itachi began, sitting up on his knees, and going into storyteller mode. "There was a God named Izanagi, and he was married to Izanami. They were happy until she tragically died during birth. He followed her to the underworld, but she had changed form and was so horrifying that he turned and ran." Itachi had to smile at the enraptured expression on his friends face. "Izanagi went to a small stream and washed himself in the pure water to clear the horror from his mind. As he did so three new Gods were born. Amaterasu sprang from his left eye, Tsukiyomi from his right, and Susano from his nose."

"His _nose_?" Deidara sniggered.

Itachi rolled his eyes. "_Yes_, his nose." He said with a grin. "Tsukiyomi was the God of storms and Susano the God of sea - he was known as the trouble maker. One day Susano threw a dead horse through the roof of his sister's house, killing her friends. Amaterasu was so frightened that she hid in a cave and refused to leave. Since she was the Goddess of the sun, this caused an eclipse, which was a bit of a problem, and the other Gods had to get her out of the cave before the world died. So they tied ribbons and mirrors over a tree infront of the cave and celebrated."

"So let me get this straight, the world is dying because the sun's gone out, so they throw a party?" Deidara asked with a frown.

"If you'd let me _finish_ it would make sense." Itachi replied. "Yes, they partied, and in doing so drew Amaterasu's attention. She asked what they were doing and they told her they had a new sun Goddess to replace her. Jealous, the Goddess left her cave and went over to the tree, but all she saw was her own reflection in all of the mirrors. By this point the other Gods had blocked up the cave and she was forced to accept that she couldn't hide forever. And thus the eclipse ended."

Deidara looked confused. "Okay, I get the story, but what has it to do with these?" He gestured to the box.

Itachi pulled the velvet from the container and carefully placed it on his lap. "There are two temples in Japan, one for Tsukyomi and one for Amaterasu. Amaterasu's has a large circular mirror, and Tsukiyomi's has a large copper disc, each is said to contain the spirit of the God and Goddess. Every fifty years the mirror is smashed and the disc broken. Then both temples are rebuilt from scratch including the disc and mirror, there is a reason to this, but my uncle never really told me why. Last time this happened my uncle took me along to watch and..." He held up the two pieces. "I did some salvaging."

Deidara carefully took the shard of mirror from the Uchiha. "So...this is supposed to contain a piece of a God?" He asked sceptically.

"No."

"Heh, I thought not, silly superstition."

"That contains the Goddess."

The blonde stared at him for a moment. "You...you actually believe that?"

Itachi smiled back. "After some of the things I've seen, it's not so hard to believe."

He accepted the fragment back and placed the two pieces back in their box. As he closed the lid however, there was a flash of sunlight – possibly a reflection – and a small breeze swept around the room before the lid fully closed.

Deidara looked hurriedly up at the window, but it was tightly shut and the heavy rain still persisted outside, there was no light to reflect, or gap for a breeze to blow through. He turned back to see Itachi grinning at him.

"Sun and storms." The Uchiha said, smirking at Deidara's gobsmacked expression.

"Okay...that's kinda cool..." The blonde was staring at the small box in awe. "What can you do with them?"

"I have no idea." Itachi said happily. "Maybe nothing, but they're fascinating things." He stood up to put the box back in the wardrobe. As he shut it there was the sound of the front door opening downstairs.

"Itachi, Sasuke, I'm home."

Itachi glanced out of the window. "Oh, my Mum's home. Come on, you can meet her."

Deidara followed Itachi downstairs excitedly, intrigued about how the rest of the Uchihas measured up on the oddity scale.

They entered the kitchen where a short raven haired woman was placing her brief-case on the table. When she looked up Deidara saw that his friend had inherited a lot of her looks.

"Konichiwa Kaa-san." Itachi said with a short bow, Deidara hiding slightly behind him.

"Oh, don't be so formal dear." Itachi's mother laughed, brushing wisps of hair back behind her ears as she straightened up. She spotted Deidara and her smile grew delighted. "And who's your friend?"

Itachi pulled his companion forward. "Kaa-san, this is Deidara, Deidara, this is my mother."

Deidara reached out and shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you Mrs Uchiha."

She laughed. "Such a gentleman. And please, call me Mikoto; Mrs Uchiha makes me sound old."

The blonde smiled and nodded. "Okay then, pleased to meet you Mikoto."

The woman grinned – the same grin her eldest son had – then turned back to Itachi.

"Ita-dear, I'm out of milk; can you go down to Jakes and get me some please?"

Jakes was the local newsagents, down at the council estate, and Deidara glanced at his friend.

"That's on my way home, want to walk with me?"

He got a smile and nod in return.

The walk down to the newsagents was quick, despite the persistent rain. Deidara said goodbye and headed off down a side street whilst Itachi went into the little shop to buy his milk.

The blonde, now without an umbrella, was happily getting soaked by splashing in the puddles as he sauntered down the alley-way that led off to his street. It was a dingy little path, littered with old fag ends and flattened beer cans that Deidara avoided with practiced ease.

His mind was still going over what Itachi had told him about the old legend. It was certainly hard to believe, but once you've seen someone tie a fork in a knot by merely staring at it, you could find yourself believing in some strange things. Still, those voodoo doll things – Hitogota if his memory was correct – they were far too much like something witch-doctors used. No matter what Itachi said about them, Deidara still didn't think that they sounded like they could do anything non-curse related.

He kicked an empty can along through the puddles, nearing the end of the alley. Tripping slightly on it in wet trainers, the blonde gave up and back-kicked the piece of junk behind himself. Three steps on and he heard the can bounce along again before smacking into the back of his ankle.

Deidara stopped and stared down at the innocent piece of rubbish. The hairs on the back of his neck were tingling with that ancient sense that all humans seem to have retained from the time they were monkeys telling him there was someone behind him.

Turning slowly he noted with chagrin that he was right. Well, serves him right for forgetting that he was in trouble with one of the town's most notorious gangs. Three figures were blocking the alley way that he'd just walked up, and he didn't need to look round to know that the only other exit was now inaccessible too.

"Long time no see Deidara." The voice in his ear was smooth and horribly familiar.

"Yeah." Deidara turned slowly to meet the person face to face. "Hi Sasori."

Sasori smirked and stepped aside.

"Should have known you don't do anything yourself anymore, always someone else's dogsbody." Deidara sneered at his old friend, before meeting the gaze of the person behind Sasori. "Hi Pein, let me guess, this isn't a social call?"

Pein glared at him coldly. "You'd be right there." He casually circled Deidara, looking the blonde up and down. "You have some nerve, I'll give you that."

"Oh stop acting like you're so much older and superior." Deidara snapped back. "We're the same age!"

There were sniggers from the rest of Pein's friends, and Deidara found himself wishing that someone would come along so that he could get away. Whatever Pein had planned, it wasn't going to be pretty.

"Same age, and yet you're still living at home with your Daddy." Pein sneered. "But we didn't come here to exchange pleasantries. Can you guess the real reason we're here Deidara?"

The blonde rolled his eyes, acting a lot more confident than he felt. Already he was desperately working on an escape route, but with both ends of the alley blocked, and what with being heavily outnumbered, his mind was drawing a blank.

"Let's see; you're an admirer of my artwork and want to purchase some." He said with a smirk. The remark earned him a short laugh, before Pein's hand was suddenly tightening around his neck, forcing him up against the filthy brick wall.

"Guess again." The orange-haired man spat. "You upset my sister today, and that is not something I take kindly to."

Deidara couldn't reply as he clawed at the fingers around his throat, and he attempted to kick out instead. A swift merciless punch to the stomach put an end to that idea and he hung limply, trying to get some much needed air.

"So my friends here -" Pein gestured around to the other five or so people no crowding in on them. "- and myself are here to teach you a lesson that will hopefully ensure you aren't so discourteous to girls in the future." He emphasised this with another vicious punch to Deidara's ribs, causing the blonde to gasp and cough painfully.

Deidara raised his head and glared at the man he'd once called a friend. He'd bitten his lip when the second hit had connected and a thin dribble of blood now ran down his chin, accenting his icy gaze. Sasori broke eye contact and looked away, shame flickering through his eyes.

"Fuck you Pein!" He spat, struggling harder.

Pein laughed. "That's rich! Looking at your current position you really should be a little more courteous."

Looking around at the smirks on the other guy's faces, Deidara had to admit that things were looking pretty grim. There was another punch to his abdomen, followed almost instantaneously by one to his shoulder, but he forced a grin to his face. Yes, he was scared – or more accurately terrified –, the punches hurt like hell and he knew it was only going to get worse from here on, but he was damned if he was going to give Pein the satisfaction of knowing all that. So he sucked up the pain and fear, and just grinned at his attackers. And never had he hated anyone more in his life than he did Pein at that moment! Had he the means, he would have happily wiped the arrogant bastard off the face of the earth and into hell to be tortured for eternity.

"I'll soon wipe that smirk off, Blondie!" Pein hissed.

"Do a number on his face!" Kakuzu laughed, to a chorus of cheers from the others. Pein just grinned in reply, raising his fist.

Deidara screwed his eyes shut, waiting for the blow to fall, since there was nothing else he could do. Determined to stay silent, he clenched his teeth, hoping that all this wouldn't last long and that just possibly he'd get away without a broken nose.

_Please let someone come. Please let someone come. Anyone, someone. Please, HELP ME!! Don't let this happen, please anyone, save me, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease..._

The punch landed.


	5. Chapter 5

**You're still reading? THANKS!!**

_Deidara screwed his eyes shut, waiting for the blow to fall, since there was nothing else he could do. Determined to stay silent, he clenched his teeth, hoping that all this wouldn't last long and that just possibly he'd get away without a broken nose._

_Please let someone come. Please let someone come. Anyone, someone. Please, HELP ME!! Don't let this happen, please anyone, save me, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease..._

_The punch landed._

Deidara opened his eyes.

The punch had caught his cheek with all the force of a thrown sponge. There was no pain, no rebound, no ominous crunching noise. He stared at Pein, who stared back, then both gazes turned to Pein's fist.

As if testing a theory, the orange-haired youth drew back and let fly what should have been another vicious hit. This time it landed on Deidara's forehead, and again felt no worse than a ball of tissue paper having been thrown at him.

"Leave him alone, _now_!"

All heads turned to the mouth of the alley, where a new person stood.

"Itachi?!" Deidara's gleeful shout was somewhat hindered by the hand still gripping his throat, but he had never been so glad to see someone in his life.

"Keep out of this, it doesn't concern you." Pein ordered, addressing Itachi, but without taking his eyes off his current victim.

"It certainly does concern me! And if I were you I would accept some friendly advice and leave now." Itachi answered straight back, completely uncaring to Pein's gang status or the implications of taking on a whole gang single handed.

Pein sneered and shook Deidara. "Hear that Blondie? Your friend is trying to be your knight in shining armour, much good it'll do you!" He punched the blonde again.

Deidara felt the fist land against his sternum, with a force that should have broken ribs. But it didn't break his ribs, it didn't even hurt. There was a distinct cracking sound, but it wasn't from him, or Pein. He turned his head to see Itachi holding out one of the wooden doll-like figures. Even as he watched, a crack appeared down its chest – two were already marring the head.

"No way..." He just stared.

Pein looked between Deidara and the newcomer, eyes narrowing. He'd felt the difference when his punches had connected; to him it had seemed like he was hitting wood, not flesh, and now his sharp mind was putting two and two together as he looked over the Hitogota Itachi held.

"I think I know who you are." He stated with a disdainful sneer. "You're the freak Konan's mentioned; the one they say killed a boy just by putting a curse on him."

"That's me."

"And you think that little piece of wood will frighten me off?"

Itachi looked down at the Hitogota he held. "No, it isn't meant to." His gaze returned to meet Pein's. "But if you don't leave right now, you'll regret it!" Was it a trick of the light, or had his eyes taken on a red gleam?

Pein laughed, and the rest of his posse laughed vacantly, quick to follow their leader.

"Boys, I think we have a hero here who needs to be taught a basic lesson in manners, and when not to butt in to conversations that don't include him." He said with a less-than-pleasant smirk.

Itachi's own grin became feral. "Try me!"

Deidara was still pinned to the wall, so could only watch helplessly as Kakuzu and Kisame – two of the largest in the gang – lumbered forward towards his friend. Kisame got there first and took a swipe at the smaller man that should have sent Itachi flying.

So it wasn't quite clear why Kisame was the one to hit the floor instead. Kakuzu glanced towards his fallen companion – who was groaning whilst trying to sit up – and snarled, barrelling forwards with his head down like a rugby player. Itachi sidestepped easily and – using the taller man's forward momentum to his advantage – brought his knee up into Kakuzu's stomach, flipping the heavy man in the air and sending him sprawling to the ground like Kisame.

Deidara couldn't help but feel that he was watching a Jackie Chan movie or something.

Advancing on Pein, Itachi's glare was frightening. "_I warned you!_" His voice was a low hiss.

Pein's grip had loosened on his neck, and Deidara took the opportunity to kick at his attacker and slip free. Pein didn't even glance in his direction, instead concentrating on the approaching Uchiha.

What had seemed to be a simple job – beat the crap out of Deidara – had taken a sudden and nasty turn for the worse.

Itachi grinned demonically and held the Hitogota over his head. A sudden wind swept up the alleyway, seemingly originating from him, causing the old cans and rubbish on the ground to roll along at a surprising speed. Pein tried to shield his eyes against the sudden gust that blew dust and dirt up into the air.

"What the fuck...?"

Even Deidara backed away as Itachi began advancing on the orange-haired man. The Uchiha laughed and began to chant.

It was a low, sonorous voice that rose above the sudden gale and sent shivers down everyone's spines. Over and over, just a few lines, but in a language that was alien to Deidara. And looking at the others faces, he could see that it made little sense to them either. All anyone knew was that it was filled with angered intent and was directed at Pein.

Said man was backing away now, and as Itachi raised a threatening finger towards him he finally let out a yelp and fled, his gang hot on his heels.

As the attackers scrambled away out of sight, the winds died down and the aura surrounding Itachi seemed to dissipate. He walked up to a now very cautious Deidara, beginning to chuckle.

"You okay?" He asked. Looking the blonde up and down he couldn't see any visible bruises beyond the one on his friend's throat, but that didn't mean there weren't any others.

"A few sore ribs and an aching stomach, I've had worse." Deidara said with a tired smile, rubbing his neck. "But what the _hell_ was all that about?"

Itachi threw him the Hitogota, which he caught with ease. On close examination, there were three distinct cracks running against the grain; two on the head, and one nearly cutting all the way through the chest. On the strip of paper a set of Japanese symbols were hurriedly scrawled, unintelligible to the blonde.

"Still think it's voodoo?" Itachi asked, coming to stand next to him.

Deidara smiled at him. "I think I've been persuaded to think otherwise." He passed the little wooden figure back. "What do the crazy symbols mean?"

"Those 'crazy symbols' as you put it are called Kanji – the Japanese written language – and it spells your name."

"_My_ name?!"

"Of course, otherwise it wouldn't work." Itachi grinned. "I made it into a substitute for you, so that the damage you should have acquired transferred and you were unharmed."

"Something I'm very grateful for, believe me." Deidara handed the Hitogota back. "But what the hell did you do to Pein? Even I was terrified of you!"

Itachi laughed. "That? That was nothing. The wind was a simple trick, and everything else was just playing on his fear."

"But what were you saying? _Did_ you put a curse on him?" The hope on Deidara's face wasn't easy to miss.

That really set Itachi laughing, and he clapped the blonde on the shoulder. "_That_?! No, that wasn't a curse!"

"So what did you _say_?"

" 'Your aunt looks like a baboon', on repeat, in Russian."

Deidara stared at him. "You're bloody joking!"

The Uchiha shook his head happily. "Nope!" He repeated the chant he'd been doing earlier, although now that Deidara knew what it meant it didn't sound half as spooky.

"So you know Russian?"

"Among other things."

"And why say that?"

"Seemed like a good idea at the time."

Deidara just shook his head in awe, rubbing his throat absentmindedly again. He was certainly thankful that his friend had showed up when he did, despite the Uchiha's odd way of dealing with the situation. Speaking of which...

"Hey –" He looked over to where Itachi was now leaving the dim alleyway. "- How did you know where I was, or that I needed help? Telepathy?"

Itachi rolled his eyes and glanced back over his shoulder at his friend. "I've told you quite a few times now that I can't do that." He stated, stepping out into the main street. "No, I just heard you screaming and came running."

Deidara followed him out, frowning as he did so. "But...I wasn't screaming. I didn't make a sound." He said uncertainly. He was positive of that fact; he'd promised himself that he wouldn't give Pein the satisfaction of getting a reaction from him. And he'd never degrade himself as far as _screaming_!

The Uchiha frowned as well. He was certain of what he'd heard; Deidara _had_ been calling for help, but if the blonde said he _hadn't_ been then...He shook his head, maybe Naru was right after all. Itachi knew damn well that he was unable to read the thoughts of others, but he could _receive_ thoughts from an real psychic. Did that mean Deidara was actually...

"Hello? Earth to the Uchiha, knock knock!" There was a light tapping on the side of his head and he shook himself out of the thought process.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He asked, now looking his friend up and down in the daylight. Despite Deidara's waterlogged appearance, he didn't seem overly worse for the wear. The bruising around his neck was beginning to blossom nicely, and he had an arm wrapped around his stomach, but he was upright and smiling, so it couldn't be that bad.

"Yeah, as I said; I've had worse." The blonde said with a tired grin. "But I'm really glad you showed up when you did. Thanks."

Itachi returned the smile. "Here to help." He handed the Hitogota back to Deidara. "You can keep that, they can only be used once, and I usually destroy them, but you can have it if you want."

Deidara accepted it with a rather solemn expression, well aware that the little thing had saved him from a very nasty beating.

"I'd better be going." Itachi picked up a small plastic bag that was lying by the alley entrance. "The milk will go off."

Deidara laughed.

"How _could _you?! You stupid, selfish bastard!!" Konan screamed at her brother. "You _promised_ me you wouldn't!"

"I promised I wouldn't do anything _illegal_." Pein corrected, catching her fists as she tried to hit him.

Angry tears ran down Konan's face as she tried to wrestle her hands free. "And you call beating someone up perfectly within the law?" She shouted back. "You've already been in trouble with the police, Pein; I don't want to lose you too! It's bad enough with Mum and Dad in jail!"

Pein let go of her wrists, and before she could hit him pulled her into a tight hug. "I know, and I promise I'll stay out of the police's way." He pulled back a little to look his sister squarely in the eye. "But I also promised to look after you, and I intend to do that!"

"Beating up Deidara wasn't necessary!"

There was an awkward pause. "Well, we didn't _exactly_ beat him up..."

Now that Deidara was well acquainted with Itachi, it seemed he'd been given the same social stigma as the Uchiha. Most of his old friends no longer wanted to hang around with him, and he found himself increasingly alone during breaks times. It was strange how little it seemed to matter though. Itachi was an engaging person, and they readily found that their tentative friendship strengthened with the passing days.

Deidara had always held a fascination for magic and such-like, and now having someone who not only wanted to talk about it, but was able to _do_ many of the unknown arts was a delight. Lunch times usually saw the two of them holed up in the school library, Itachi going over some ancient rite or just correcting the many assumptions Deidara had.

Such as the fact that there were many types of 'magic' – as the blonde insisted on calling it, despite many protests – and just because Itachi excelled at some, did _not_ mean he could do everything. Telepathy being a case in point.

This was something Deidara was still struggling to get his head around.

One chilly afternoon – nearly a week after the attempted attack – the two were back in the sixth form section of the library, as close to the radiator as possible, with a large book on paranormal phenomena open infront of them. Why the school had such a book was unclear, and it was even less certain why it had been put on the shelf along with the religious material, but Deidara had found it wedged between a dog-eared Bible and a book on Hinduism.

"So that doesn't actually happen?"

"Not as such, you generally need an incantation to raise a spirit, or a medium for it to work through." Itachi turned the page idly. "Ah, now poltergeists are something I'm more familiar with!"

"You've had to deal with poltergeists? What happened?"

He shook his head. "I've dealt with many, and each one is different. It'd take all afternoon to go through them all."

Deidara grinned. "Well, RE has been cancelled again so we do actually _have_ all afternoon..."

Itachi sighed.

The week had passed less pleasantly for Pein.

At first it had seemed inconspicuous, just silly little things, nothing to worry about; an accident here and there, simple everyday occurrences, but happening all too frequently. At first, Konan had insisted that he was being paranoid, however even she was forced to admit that it wasn't all just in his mind.

Panicking would cause him to do things such as lose items, or drop breakables; it would not make completely unrelated incidents that he had no control over occur. For instance; when walking under some scaffolding that over hung the pavement, he'd nearly been hit by a falling brick. Paranoia could not have caused that. Sure, it may have been a coincidence, but too many similar incidents had happened now, and he – Pein, the leader of the town's most notorious gang – was beginning to freak out slightly.

The cat had tripped him down the stairs, the toaster had suddenly blown up in his face for no reason, he'd nearly been wiped out on his motorbike when a lorry rounded a blind corner on the wrong side...The list was endless. And all the time, his brain kept going back to a certain alley-way and a dark chant that had chilled his blood.

Was it possible? He certainly wouldn't have believed it a week ago. But now too much had happened in too short a space of time for it to be a mere coincidence.

When voicing this fear to his sister, she had insisted that it was merely simple psychiatry, and that he was causing it himself. However, after he'd needed to go to the doctors on seven different occasions in one week for stitches, Konan began to believe that maybe something besides a clever mind-game was at work.

So that led to the meeting of the gang in Pein's living room, their usual haunt.

"Let me get this straight; you think you've got a _curse_ on you?" Hidan asked incredulously. He flicked a finger against the side of Pein's head, earning himself a punch in return.

"It's one out of a number of theories." Konan stated, pushing both her brother and Hidan off of the sofa so that she could sit there herself. "All the others revolve around Pein being a paranoid idiot." She threw one of the lager cans at Pein's head. Pein caught it before it hit and opened it.

Hidan shoved the pierced man away from him and jumped back onto the sofa. Konan huffed and shifted enough to give him some room, but he just pulled her legs onto his lap so that she could resume her former sprawled-out position. "So, if it is a –" He had to smother a snigger. "– _curse_, what do you intend to do about it?"

Pein really couldn't do much more than shrug. "Well...I don't know yet." He gulped down some more lager to cover up his embarrassment. "This isn't exactly something I've come up against before."

"I doubt _anyone's_ come up against this sort of thing before." Kakuzu muttered in his heavily accented English. He was Spanish, and despite being in the UK for five or six years, retained his accent and dark tan. Scars from backstreet matador events covered every bare inch of him, and now a new one curved down his arm from the encounter with Itachi. "But that kid needs teaching a lesson!"

Next to him, sporting a black eye, Kisame nodded grimly. "Amen to that!"

Pein nodded reluctantly. "He does, and Blondie still needs a lesson in manners. But I'm not sure it's a good idea. We don't know what we're up against."

"We're 'up against' your overactive imagination!" Konan muttered.

Her brother shot her a long suffering glare. "You weren't there Kon, you didn't see it. It was like...like a movie or something."

"Yeah, with bad special effects." Sasori added. He was flicking his phone open and shut, a bad habit that served as a displacement activity.

There was an uncomfortable silence around the room. The gang were confident in the face of the police, rival gangs and God knows what other urban rubbish Nottingham could dredge up, but this was something beyond their realm of experience. This was beyond _anyone's _realm of experience.

Pein realised he was losing face, and tried to rally.

"Okay then. I can't say I know what's going on here, and I can't say I know how to deal with it. All I _do_ know is that over the past week I've had more accidents than I've had in my whole life, and it all started that day in the alley." He held up his arm, and pulled back his sleeve to expose a long livid wound held shut with around fifteen stitches. "This is one of many, and they are getting _worse_! I was tripped down the stairs down yesterday by _someone's _cat." He shot a glance a Konan, who glared back. They'd already had the argument over the cat. "I don't want this to escalate. Stitches I can deal with, broken bones I don't want to _have_ to deal with."

"So do you want us to get him?" Hidan asked, drumming his fingers on Konan's shin. Konan kicked him with her other foot.

Pein swilled his lager around the can, thoughtfully. "Not yet. We need to find out more about him."

"Itachi Uchiha, moved from Japan two years ago, no friends other than Deidara, known freak. What's to know?" Konan asked, her voice laced with boredom. "I've been researching general paranormal usage though-"

"Reading Anne Rice books don't count as research." Her brother interrupted.

"Well, they cover paranormal phenomenon."

"They cover vampires. I'm having a hard time believing that Itachi even cast a curse, you're not going to persuade me he's a vampire now!"

Konan huffed and folded her arms with a scowl. Hidan patted her knee in sympathy, earning himself a smack for his troubles.

"_Anyway_." Pein turned back to face the others. "No, I don't think we should make a move on Itachi yet."

There were muted mutters around the room, but people nodded consent. Pein was the leader, it was their job to listen to him.

"Well..?" Kabuto pushed his glasses up his nose, leaning forward eagerly to hear the low-down on what had happened in the gang meeting.

Orochimaru sat down on the bar stool next to him and ordered a cider before answering his friend. Kabuto wasn't privileged enough to be in Pein's gang – he had no discerning talents that would make him useful, and tended to attach himself to more powerful or influential people. Orochimaru had originally filled this position, having once been Pein's right hand man, although he'd gone down in favour since nearly getting arrested twice. Still, he was allowed into the gang meetings, and that was enough for hangers-on like Kabuto, who wanted to get themselves noticed by Pein.

"He's still hung up about that business with the Uchiha guy." Orochimaru said finally, flicking at the small head of foam on his cider.

"And that means what? They're going after him?" Kabuto's face gleamed savagely with animalistic fervour at the idea of a hunt

"No, Pein's too scared." The dark haired man smirked as his companion choked on his own drink at that statement. "He doesn't understand what's happening, and that scares him."

"So what do you want to do about it?"

Orochimaru rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "It'll be brownie points for me if I take Uchiha out for him. I can put in a good word for you, and you can be accepted into the gang." He took a sip of his drink. "Of course, all we need to do is scare the guy a little, just some threats to make him take notice, then we tell him to take the curse off."

Kabuto put his glass down on the sticky bar top. "Do you really believe it's a curse?" He asked sceptically. His companion looked at him with a more serious expression than usual.

"I was still in college when Shisui died. I was there in that cafeteria and I know I heard Uchiha say something, and I'm guessing it wasn't love poem. Now I don't know about curses, but that guy can do _something_ alright, and whatever 'it' is, he's done it to Pein."

"Okay, you know best."

Orochimaru pulled his phone out and handed it to his friend, this was something the rest of his group of hangers-on might want to get involved in. "Call the others, tell them we're on to something."

Kabuto nodded, flicking the phone open. "Are we leaving now?"

The dark haired man checked his watch. "Yeah, school's out in five minutes, we'll catch him on his way home." A sly grin twisted his face as he pushed up the sleeve of his jacket just enough to show the handle of a knife. "And tell them I'm prepared."

The bus park was its usual screaming mob of children trying to find their respective buses once the end-of-school bell had gone. Itachi and Deidara, like so many of the people who walked home, were pushing their way through the crowds.

The rain had eased off over the week, and although it remained overcast, now it was just plain _cold_. Deidara's reaction to this was to wear a rather fetching blue and green striped scarf that was ridiculously long and far too bright.

He was happily shoving through the crowd, smacking kids aside with his sketch book if they didn't move quickly enough. Itachi was following behind at a more sedate manner. He'd found over time that he didn't need to force his way through, people liked to give him as wide a berth as possible.

There was a yelp from up ahead, and he pushed forward a little faster just in time to see Deidara whap a kid out of the way. The boy turned round to hurl a mouthful of abuse at the blonde until Itachi grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.

"Hi Sasuke, good day?" He snarled, dragging his younger brother along with him. Sasuke struggled and fought back, but the grip on his coat collar was like iron and he had no choice but to wave goodbye to his friends and allow himself to be manhandled out of the bus park.

"Itachi! Let go of me you prick!"

Itachi didn't do as asked – or rather _demanded_ – until the three of them were well out of the school gates. Then he let the boy go.

"Deidara, I'd appreciate it if you didn't thump my brother with your sketch-book." He said with hardly any emotion. "It makes him grouchy."

"Fuck you!" Sasuke spat.

Deidara sniggered. "Oh come on, I hit anyone in my way, kiddo here was in my way, QED kiddo gets hit."

Itachi's lips twitched into a grin, and Sasuke snarled at him, bunching his hand into a fist. The elder Uchiha raised an eyebrow at the gesture, as his little brother drew back to hit him. Then the boy paused, lowered his hand with an aggravated growl and turned away to start storming off up the hill.

"Oookay..." Deidara came up to stand next to Itachi. "What happened there? I thought he was going to smack you one."

Itachi shrugged. "He obviously realised it was a bad idea." He began following his brother on the road home. "Are you coming?"

Deidara frowned slightly; sure that he was missing something. Sasuke had defiantly been about to slug his brother and yet had...stopped. Itachi certainly hadn't done anything, and the younger Uchiha didn't seem the type to be cowed by paranormal threats either. Something had stopped Sasuke, and it hadn't been fear or conscience.

He shook himself when Itachi called him, and ran to catch up.

The wind picked up along the road that crested over the top of the hill and Deidara shivered as he fell into step beside his friend. Sasuke was still slightly ahead of them, but slowing down now that he had made his point. Itachi was watching his younger brother with a half irritated half amused look on his face.

"Seems like younger siblings can be a pain in the arse." Deidara said conversationally. "Makes me glad I'm an only child."

"It wasn't always like this." Itachi murmured almost to himself. "Then again, life goes on."

"What are you talking about?"

He shook himself. "Nothing, it's nothing."

Deidara didn't look convinced, but didn't pursue the line of enquiry. He knew that Itachi had gone to live in Japan at the tender age of thirteen – a difficult age to be when you're thrown into a country where you can't speak a word of the language – which would have made Sasuke...eight, if his maths was correct. So, the brothers had been parted for nearly five years, in which time Sasuke had entered the troubled and hormone laden years of being a teenager, and Itachi had left them as a mature adult. Cue instant melt down when they meet again, especially if they'd parted on bad terms.

Of course, this was just speculation on Deidara's behalf, but it kinda made sense. Now just to find out what had made them hate each other in the first place.

He didn't realise that Itachi and Sasuke had both come to a halt until he walked into his friend's out stretched arm. He looked up, wondering why Itachi had stopped him, and saw that the way was now blocked by a group of men.

The seemed around Deidara and Itachi's. And none of them looked friendly. One girl was hiding at the back, dirty pink dread locks swinging around her face and what appeared to be a flute case strung around her neck. The others were a mismatched group; one guy large enough to be a wrestler, another pale one with red rimmed eyes that looked sickly, a white haired geek with glasses, twins, one freak with a hairstyle that put people in mind of a spider and finally the Leader.

He was a nasty piece of work, and Deidara was sure he'd last seen him down in that alley a week before. Long, greasy black hair that was in rather bad condition, sallow skin the colour of ash and deep set sunken eyes. He sneered at Sasuke, who had been further ahead than Itachi and had nearly run into the gang when they had jumped out of the side street. The boy jumped back a few paces to collide with his big brother, who put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"Excuse us; we'd like to get past." Itachi said, glaring at the man.

"No, you aren't going anywhere yet." The guy folded his arms with a smirk. "My name is Orochimaru, and I'm here from Pein. You see, he has a bone to pick with you. He's not happy, not happy _at all_!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Triple update as promised :D and a little sooner than usual**, **GO ME!! **

**once agin dedicated to my ickle sis, and my most awesome of beta readers; come on people, give manu-chan a big round of applause here, she's in the middle of monsoon, has been flooded out and can still find time to edit my scribblings, if anyone deserves a gold she does!! places gold medal around manu-seme's neck**

**and much love also to everyone who has written such lovely reviews - you all know who you are - so consider yourselves well and truely hugged then buried under a mountain of cookies :D**

**xox**

"_Excuse us; we'd like to get past." Itachi said, glaring at the man._

"_No, you aren't going anywhere yet." The guy folded his arms with a smirk. "My name is Orochimaru, and I'm here from Pein. You see, he has a bone to pick with you. He's not happy, not happy at all!"_

Itachi frowned, not quite sure why Pein would be that pissed off with him, he didn't even know the guy!

"What's his issue?" He let his disinterest colour his voice, still holding Sasuke back.

"You are his issue." Orochimaru answered, with a nasty smirk. "When you had your little bitch fight over Blondie-" He nodded towards Deidara. "- last week, you got a little...tetchy. Infact, he's saying that you've put a curse on him."

Itachi stared. Beside him Deidara stiffened, and Sasuke let out a loud '_what?_'.

"What makes him think I'd do a thing like that?"

"With your track record? We all know you've cursed and killed before. And Pein would rather like his to be taken off before_ he_ ends up hanging from a lamppost."

Deidara put a hand on Itachi's arm to get his friend's attention. "You said you didn't curse Pein." He said quietly, with a frown.

"I didn't..." Itachi glared at Orochimaru. "You can tell the high-and-mighty Pein that I _haven't_ cursed him." He snapped. "And now, if you don't mind, we'd like to go please."

Orochimaru tapped his fingers on his folded arms. "You aren't going _anywhere._ Pein has spent the past week being tripped up, having things dropped on him and experiencing freak accidents. And we are here to make you _stop_ these things from happening."

"But I haven't _done_ anything!" Itachi was getting pissed off now, and he could sense Deidara's growing confusion next to him.

"Well, Pein says you have, and Pein's the one I listen to, hence; Pein's the one I'm going to trust here."

Deidara decided to question his friend later, since defence seemed to be a better option at this precise moment in time.

"And if Itachi refuses?"

There was a general cracking of knuckles and tightening of fists in Orochimaru's gang.

"There's your answer genius!" Sasuke snapped. He turned to glare at his brother. "Why must you always drag me into _your_ problems?"

"I didn't drag you into this one." Itachi looked at Deidara, who was already rolling his sleeves up in readiness. "Two fights in a week, is this normal for you?"

"Pretty much."

The Uchiha sighed. He really hated resorting to violence, but there was no way he could talk sense into the thick heads of the gang opposite them, so it seemed his only option.

"Fine then. Sasuke, the moment you get the chance, run. We'll deal with these guys."

Sasuke twisted out of his brother's grip. "Fuck that! I'm not running away like a pansy. And don't think I'll fight for you either, I'm staying out of this!"

Itachi growled something under his breath that was most likely very offensive, before glaring back at Orochimaru.

"You can tell Pein that I haven't done a thing, and I don't intend to help him." He said icily. "If you have a problem with that then I suggest you leave now."

Orochimaru sneered. "That's not the answer we want Itachi, and we'll make you see reason if it involves beating you into next week!"

There must have been some hidden signal in the sentence since at that, the entire gang instantly lunged at the trio.

"Bugger..." Deidara dropped his sketch book, and slipped his rucksack off of one shoulder to use it as a weapon. He had seen his way through many street fights thanks to a handy bag, and he was a pro at using his rucksack to cause maximum damage. In retrospect, it was probably a _good_ thing he'd spent so many of his younger years getting into fights – if he wasn't incapacitated straight away (like that time in the alley, Damnit!) then he was considered a good melee fighter.

The heavy wrestler-type guy came at him, and he swung his impromptu weapon at the man's face. It connected with a solid 'thunk' that should have sent the guy down. Instead he just paused, and – in a true strong-but-dumb henchman fashion – merely blinked stupidly before lumbering on again. Deidara backtracked a few paces, surprised that the combined weight of all his art supplies and two history text books at terminal velocity hadn't floored the man at first strike. That left his other favourite move, which worked no matter how hard his opponent believed himself to be.

Juugo wasn't the smartest bloke in town. Screw that - you'd be hard pressed to find someone stupider, but he did find it slightly disconcerting the way the small blonde infront of him just grinned as he raised one shovel like fist to send the guy flying. And then Deidara's fast and above all _heavy_ bag came up like _this_, and Juugo found that, while there were worse things in life than getting a whack in the balls, it was difficult to think of any when you're on the ground in the foetal position in agony. Then Deidara's combat boot connected with his head and he lost all train of thought entirely.

Deidara nodded in the happy satisfaction of a job well done, and turned to face the twins, who were approaching with a little more caution since seeing what had happened to their colleague.

Sasuke meanwhile, despite not wanting anything to do with his brother's issues, had found himself confronted with the woman. She smiled at him, all nicotine-stained teeth and smudged lipstick, before lunging forward to rake her nails down his face. Now a gentleman would have a problem in this situation, since the only way out was fighting back; however, Sasuke was no gentleman, and had no qualms about hitting a lady if she seemed intent on ripping his eyeballs out for no reason.

He grabbed her hand just before it made contact with his face, twisted her wrist, and spun on one foot so that his momentum flipped her over onto the ground. She landed with an undignified squeal next to the unconscious Juugo.

Sasuke snorted, hardly impressed with the pitiful fight, and looked up to see if there was anyone else who was going to bother him. Deidara had now dealt with the twins, and was also standing unchallenged, which meant the remaining four guys had gone after Itachi...

As if on cue, both the blonde, and the younger Uchiha turned to see how the elder was faring. Deidara was expecting to have to jump in and help, since he doubted Itachi had ever actually been in a fight as such. Sasuke wasn't half as worried; not because he knew his brother would be okay, but more because he genuinely didn't care right now.

However, the sight that met them wasn't one either expected.

Only Orochimaru was still standing, and he looked like he was having trouble. The other three lay on the floor groaning, and – in Kimimaro's case – looking for their teeth. Itachi seemed to be a high-speed blur - kicking, twisting, punching and dancing around his opponent like Jet Lee on crack. Orochimaru was having a hard time merely blocking the insanely quick attacks, let alone hitting back.

Then Itachi seemed to slow down, his last kick that sent his opponent stumbling backwards was actually visible to the naked eye. He stopped his attack and watched disdainfully as Orochimaru tried to stagger towards him again.

"Give up; you're not going to win this." He stated coldly.

The greasy-haired man snarled, before lunging forwards again. As he did so, his hand went to his sleeve, and there was a flash of light.

"_He's got a knife!"_

Itachi didn't hear Deidara's warning until too late, as he brought his arm up to block the attack. Both he and Orochimaru froze, locked in the combat position.

Blood began to drip down onto the concrete between them.

He stumbled back, staring down at his arm. A long switch blade was embedded in the soft flesh of his forearm, and only now as he watched the blood seep out of the bone-deep wound did the pain begin to register.

Then there was a shout from behind him, and he saw Sasuke run up to his side, Deidara close behind. Orochimaru shook himself out of his horrified stupor as what he'd just done began to register. Calling up his gang, he fled the scene.

Itachi watched in detached interest as Sasuke wrapped a scarf - Deidara's by the look of it – around his upper arm as a tourniquet. He pulled his arm away from his little brother's not-so-gentle-ministrations and clutched it to his chest, trying not to disturb the knife that remained embedded. His mind was beginning to go fuzzy, and he wondered if it was shock setting in. He needed to make sure he dealt with this correctly; keep the wound above his heart, don't remove the foreign object yet as it is stemming the blood-flow. Yes, he'd done the two important things, was anything else necessary?

God his mind was just refusing to work!

Sasuke saw Itachi begin to pale and forced the older Uchiha to sit down on the kerb, wrapping his own coat around his brother's shoulders.

"Deidara, call 999!"

Deidara looked panicked. "What? But it doesn't look that bad; can't we just take him to the doctors?"

"_No!_ Call an ambulance _now!_"

The blonde didn't ask again and flipped his phone open. Tapping in the three digits no one ever wants to have to use, he held the handset to his ear.

"Hello, this is Nottinghamshire emergency services, which service do you require?"

"Am-Ambulance." He closed his eyes and forced his voice to stop shaking. "We need an ambulance." He was put through to the new line, and a second voice came on.

"Where are you?"

"Bingham, Mill Hill Road, we're on the street." Damnit! His voice was still wobbly, and his hands were shaking. In the back ground he could see Sasuke wasn't doing too great either. It seemed the only one not panicking was the injured one!

"Okay, calm down son, we're sending someone out to you. Now can you tell me what happened?"

"My friend's been stabbed."

There was a small intake of breath on the other end of the line.

"Where?" The man's voice was harsher; he had immediately assumed the worst.

"Lower arm." Deidara looked over at his friend as Itachi lifted his head and muttered something. "His – _what? Oh, okay – _his main artery has been cut, but he said he's keeping it elevated."

The man talked him through a few basic principles – keep him warm, head between the knees, keep his arm above his heart – and managed to calm Deidara down enough that he was confident to end the call. The blonde crouched down infront of his friend, placing his own jacket on top of Sasuke's.

"Okay, the ambulance said they'll be here in about ten minute give or take." He said, rubbing Itachi's knee reassuringly. He got a small pained smile in return.

"It really isn't necessary, it just needs stitches." The Uchiha muttered.

"It's necessary and you know it!" Sasuke snapped. "When did you last have the injection?"

Itachi grimaced. "Too long ago."

"There we go then. You've severed your main artery, you haven't had a shot for God knows how long, this is _bad_!"

Deidara looked between the two hopelessly. "What injection? Why's that not good? _What's going on?"_

Itachi sighed, rubbing his eyes with his uninjured hand. "There's something I didn't tell you Deidara." He muttered finally. "Another little genetic screw up I've got." At his friend's worried and pleading expression he sighed. "Dei...I'm haemophilic."

Deidara stared blankly. After everything that had just happened his friend was throwing scientific jargon at him and expecting it to make sense, he wasn't a flipping doctor! The word sounded familiar though, and he frowned, trying to think where he'd heard it before. A history lesson flashed across his mind accompanied by the evilest pair of eyes he'd ever seen on a human being. Why was he thinking of Rasputin? Ah, wait a minute..._oh_...

"Blood clotting disorder!" He exclaimed in sudden comprehension. Of course, now he remembered – they'd covered the death of the Russian royal family in history last year, the Tsar's youngest son had been haemophilic.

Itachi nodded once, glaring down at the tarmac of the street like it had a personal vendetta against him.

"I'm missing a blood clotting factor ix; it means I'll just keep bleeding." He had been gripping his wounded arm tightly, but now removed his uninjured hand to look at the cut.

Deidara winced at the sight of the ugly gash.

"Shouldn't you remove the blade?" Sasuke asked.

"No, it's actually staunching some of the flow." Itachi clutched his arm back to his chest again with a hiss of pain. "Bloody hurts though!"

Deidara had to smile sympathetically at that. "What's this injection you mentioned?" He tried to keep his friend's mind off of the pain; he didn't want Itachi to go into shock.

"It's just a shot of the missing factor; my body can't make it, but if I have it artificially administered it will work." Itachi recognised what the blonde was trying to do, and smiled slightly at him. "But since I don't do much that involves the risk of bruising or injury I decided I didn't need the injections as regularly. I didn't count on getting caught in a street fight."

"Well, so much for being psychic!" Deidara laughed. "Is this why you refused to play football or rugby?" He got a small nod in return.

"I hope you realise how much trouble we'll be in when Dad finds out about this!" Sasuke butted in angrily. He glowered at his brother. "If the media get hold of this they'll have a field day – both you _and_ me in a street fight! You actually getting stabbed is just the icing on the fucking cake!"

"Why should the media care?" Deidara asked in confusion, looking between the brothers. It was Itachi who answered.

"Our Dad is the head of the Nottinghamshire county police force."

"Ah. Okay, problem then."

"Yeah, _problem!_" Sasuke snapped. He stood up as the sound of sirens reached them, and went out to the middle of the road to wave the ambulance down.

The ambulance crew were quick, friendly and efficient; splinting Itachi's arm, securely bandaging it, and ushering all three teens into the emergency vehicle. The journey to the Queen's Medical Centre Hospital was a silent affair, with Itachi seemingly off in another world as he stared broodingly at the floor, Sasuke alternating between glaring at his brother and brother's friend, and Deidara was trying to keep out of the family feud.

When they reached the hospital Itachi was bundled off into one of the doctor's surgeries, whilst his friend and brother were left in the waiting room. True to hospital tradition, there was bad music playing, the nurses wouldn't tell them anything, and about half an hour after arriving the police came by to take a statement from each of them. Okay, so maybe the police don't feature in most people's experiences of hospital, but they did in this case.

Sasuke disappeared for a few minutes to call his Mum and explain what had happened, before storming back in with a scowl.

"She's refused to pick me up until Itachi's ready to come home! He's going to be _hours_, it's not fair!" He didn't care that he sounded like a whining child. Deidara wasn't all too happy with the news, but any company is better than none, and he didn't want to leave without his friend. He broke a chunk off the end of the chocolate bar he'd purchased – and damn were those vending machines expensive! – and handed it to the sulking teen.

"Here, it might make you feel a bit better."

"I feel fine."Sasuke muttered, but he didn't decline.

They spent the next few minutes finishing off the chocolate bar in silence. Then Deidara cast a glance at his still-sulking companion.

"Okay, we've got time to kill, so I might as well ask," He said conversationally. "What's the deal between you two? Why the animosity?" At Sasuke's blank expression he repeated the question changing 'animosity' to a simpler term.

"He's a twat, that's all there is to it." The Uchiha muttered.

"That's not really an answer."

The teen looked at him appraisingly for a moment or two, before sighing.

"Yeah, I guess it isn't." He kicked his heels against the plastic chair. "Fine, if you must know; it's because of all those weird things he can do."

Deidara frowned, not understanding what the kid meant. "You're jealous?"

"Hell no." Sasuke glared down at the floor. "Look, he's never been a real big brother to me, and I've learnt not to trust him. You'd be better off learning that too. He has a habit of hurting those closest to him."

This was unexpected. Deidara hadn't thought to hear such a thing about his friend. Sasuke saw the confusion on the older man's face, and felt a better explanation was needed.

"Okay, long story short." The young Uchiha sat up properly. "When my brother was eight years old his..._powers-" _The word was spat. "-manifested themselves. He had no control over them and as a result poltergeist activity began around the house."

"Whoa whoa, what?" Deidara held up a hand to stop the kid. "_Poltergeist activity?_ As in _real_ poltergeist activity?"

"Yeah. Apparently it's quite common if someone has untrained abilities, at least, that's the bullshit Itachi told me when he came back to England." Sasuke said bitterly. "I was only five at the time, I was bloody _terrified_! It wasn't too bad at the beginning, just weird knocking sounds, moving objects, the normal stuff associated with ghost activity. Then it began to get bad. We'd wake up to find all the furniture in the dining room turned upside-down, or objects would physically fly round the room before our eyes. It came to a head when I was pushed down the stairs on multiple occasions, and lit matches dropped out of nowhere. We had to move twice since two house fires broke out. In the end our uncle Madara from Japan called and offered to bring Itachi up and teach him how to control his abilities. Itachi was thirteen by that point, I was eight." Sasuke shrugged slightly. "He terrified me. I kept thinking that one day he'd kill me, even if he didn't mean to. And when he came back last year...I didn't know him, he was a completely new person."

"Didn't you try giving each other another chance?" Deidara asked softly.

"Where was the point? I thought uncle Madara was supposed to be _stopping_ all the weirdness, instead Itachi's now twice as freaky as before!" Sasuke shrugged again. "So that's the big mystery."

There was a long pause, a silence that stretched out between them. Deidara had no idea what to say. He had a hard time trying to imagine his friend causing such problems.

It ended up that he didn't have time to say anything, since a shadow fell over the floor infront of them. Looking up he smiled to see Itachi standing next to his chair.

"Hey, sorry it took so long, the police insisted on getting a statement once the nurse was done." He said with a tired grin. His arm was now in a white cotton sling, a neat bandage wrapped around the wound

Deidara stood up and stretched. "It's fine, they've only had the same six tracks playing on repeat for the past three hours." He laughed. "How's your arm?"

Itachi glanced down at the sling. "It should be okay. The nurse stitched it up, and I've been given a shot of the clotting factor. I didn't lose too much blood, so yeah, it should be fine."

"Bloody brilliant. Can we _go_ now?" Sasuke snapped. He stood up, pushing Itachi out of his way as he did so.

Deidara saw the scowl that passed over the elder brother's face, and now knew a little about why it was there. Knew why, but still couldn't quite _understand _why. He just couldn't see what was stopping the two from sitting down talking about the whole issue between them. Well, okay. So Sasuke was a hormonal kid and Itachi was as stubborn as an ox, neither wanted to make the first move, so the animosity would last. He rolled his eyes; _Uchihas!_

Whilst he was considering this, another argument was brewing between the siblings next to him. Sasuke was complaining that he wanted their mother to pick them up, and Itachi was arguing back that they should take the bus. Pushing both warring factions apart, Deidara stood between them.

"Okay guys, quit it! We'll take the bus, it saves your mum a trip."

Itachi nodded and his brother sulked.

The bus stop was just outside the hospital, and one was drawing up as they got there. Itachi paid for both himself and his brother whilst Deidara searched his pockets for loose change. When he finally had a handful of coins he handed them to the driver;

"Single to Bingham pl-" He stopped and the driver stared back.

"Deidara! What are you doing at the hospital?"

"Uh...Hi Dad."

Itachi had stopped halfway up the aisle to see what was keeping Deidara, and is jaw dropped when he heard the greeting. _Deidara's father?_

There was a queue behind him, so Deidara couldn't really explain in any great detail what had transpired that day.

"My friend was hurt and needed stitches, don't worry, I'm fine." He shoved the bus ticket he was handed into his pocket. "I'll have dinner ready when you get home, see you."

His Dad nodded with a smile, and Deidara followed Itachi up the bus to a spare pair of seats. Sasuke sat as far away from them as he could and jammed his earphones in his ears.

"That was your father?" Itachi finally asked once the bus was in motion. When Deidara nodded he frowned. "You've never mentioned he's a bus driver."

"It's not something that's ever come up in conversation." Deidara muttered.

Itachi cast a sideways glance at him. The blonde was slouched down in his seat, arms folded across his chest, and body language stating that he was embarrassed. The Uchiha thought he knew why; a bus driver was neither a glamorous nor high paying job. Sure, it was a necessary occupation in society, but not one to really boast about. It also explained _why_ Deidara lived down in the old council estate – they couldn't afford better.

The Uchiha hadn't ever really noticed the social gap between them up until now. His own father was the chief of the county police, his mother a high-flying business woman, and he himself ran his own business. Then you had Deidara at the other of the scale; school dropout, no real ambition in life and brought up by a single parent – not that there was anything wrong with that, it just meant that money was tight.

"Look, I know it's not great, but he works so hard." Once again Deidara seemed to have unconsciously picked up on Itachi's thoughts. "Leaves at half seven in the morning and doesn't get home until nine in the evening, I hardly see him." He shrugged hopelessly. "Mum was always the big earner in the family; she was the head of the local primary school. Things have never been the same since she died and dad works himself to death so that I'll be able to go university next year. It may not be the most amazing job in the world, but it brings home money!" He finished defensively.

"I never actually said anything."

"You didn't need to."

Itachi nodded, more to himself than anything. No, it seemed that he really _didn't _need to say something for Deidara to hear and react to it. Interesting.

"You look a lot like him." He commented, trying to lighten the conversation.

"Hardly."

"Same facial structure, and the hair goes without saying"

Deidara looked to the front of the bus. They'd reached another stop so his dad was turned to collect a passenger's fare. Okay, so he'd copied the long pony tail, but his own hair was a golden blonde, not mousey brown like his father's. It was hard to say about the face shape though, since he didn't have a beard and his dad did.

"I guess so, I've always thought I took after my mum more." He pulled his pencil case out of his bag and dug around in it to produce a laminated passport photo. He passed the rather dog-eared picture to his friend.

Itachi smiled at the sight of a young Deidara – around six years old if he had to guess – with a blonde woman sitting next to him, her arm round his shoulders. She wasn't looking at the camera, her focus was on her young son and she was laughing as he waved both hands at the photographer. It looked like there was a light breeze, as her long hair was blowing around both of them, a protective curtain shielding them from the rest of the world.

"She was beautiful." Itachi said softly. Deidara smiled sadly.

"Yeah, she was. And funny, kind, loving, so many things. She always made us laugh, she could make anyone laugh. And she cooked the most wonderful dinners..." The blonde looked away; Itachi suspected it was to hide tears. "I have to cook now. I'm not too bad, but nowhere near as good as she was. Dad never complains though. We muddle along." Deidara scrubbed his hand across his face quickly and turned back to face his friend, a smile now on. Apart from a slight redness around his eyes he looked happy again.

Itachi didn't say anything, but put his hand on his friend's shoulder with a small smile. He looked back down at the photograph.

"You had short hair when you were a kid."

Deidara laughed. "Yeah, I grew it out when I was about fourteen."

"It suits you more long."

The blonde flicked the end of his pony tail over his shoulder. "I'm certainly more used to it being this length. Although after they bought the Lord of the Rings films out I was called Legolas for months!"

Itachi sniggered quietly. "Take it as a complement."

Deidara shrugged, then a curious gleam grew in his eyes. "By the way, where the _hell_ did you learn to fight like that? I've seen many brawls, and I have _never_ seen someone fight like that. You looked like you were out of a martial arts film or something!"

The Uchiha looked faintly smug. "My uncle taught me that. He always said there was no point in me being able to perform exorcisms and banish demons if I fell to pieces when someone tried to hit me. I guess he was right."

The bus had left the city by this point, and was barrelling down the main road to the village. Deidara glanced out of the window as a police car overtook them, sirens blaring.

Itachi also saw it, and lateral thinking made him remember that his dad was not going too pleased with the days turn of events.

"I really hope Sasuke doesn't blow everything out of proportion when dad asks us what happens." He muttered. "The fact that I got him involved in a knife fight won't go down well."

"Will he be going after Orochimaru and that lot?"

"You bet. Nottingham already has the highest rate of knife and gun crime in the country; dad's been doing his best to reduce it."

Deidara nodded gloomily. "By the way, did you mention Pein to the police?"

"No, why?"

"Because he didn't send those guys after you."

Itachi turned an appraising look on his friend. "How do you know that?"

The blonde shrugged, playing with the ends of his fringe. "I don't know. It was just kinda obvious that he was lying. Pein had no idea they were there, I'll bet anything."

Itachi tried to think if there had been any visible sign that Orochimaru hadn't been telling the truth. He couldn't think of any actual points, but apparently Deidara had seen some. Or had the blonde just thought that it had been obvious, when actually only he had picked up on it?

Whatever the answer, it didn't really matter since they were drawing into the village. Deidara's stop was one before the Uchihas so he said good bye to Itachi and kicked Sasuke on the way out.

"Try not to be late home dad. Dinner's lasagne" He said with a grin as he passed the driver. His father nodded in return as he jumped onto the path, and he waved to Itachi as the bus drove off.

The Uchihas got off at the next stop, and walked in sullen silence up the hill to their house. They didn't even need to open the door, as Mikoto was waiting for them from the front window. She came rushing out of the house with a small squeal.

"Itachi! Oh my God, are you alright? Your father called an hour ago and told me what had happened!" She pulled her startled eldest son into a tight hug. "Sasuke, you should have told me _why_ you were in hospital! You never said Itachi was hurt!"

Itachi managed to disentangle himself from his hysterical mother, and glared at his little brother, who glowered back.

"I'm fine mum, really. It's just a few stitches, and I've had the injection." He sighed.

Mikoto ushered the two of them into the house like a fussing hen. "Really, now! 'Just a few stitches'? Itachi, you were in a street fight, plain and simple!"

"Yes but-"

"And dragging your brother into it as well!"

"I didn't exactly-"

"What _will_ your father say when he gets in?!"

Itachi held up his hands to get her to shut up. "Mum, please just stop!" He sat down on the stairs to take his shoes off one-handedly. "Look, we were attacked, I just defended myself. It wasn't my fault one of them had a knife, I didn't notice until too late. And besides," He added, well aware of the lie he was about to spin. "They were muggers, I had to fight back."

Mikoto was busy fussing over Sasuke, so just nodded distractedly. Itachi rolled his eyes.

"I'm not hungry, I'm going to bed."

He picked up his school bag and trailed upstairs. The laptop on his desk was still on from when he'd left it that morning and a quick glance showed him that he had three new emails – all from SPR.

He'd look at them tomorrow, right now the day's events had caught up with him and he just wanted to sleep.

He didn't even bother to turn the laptop off.


	7. Chapter 7

_He picked up his school bag and trailed upstairs. The laptop on his desk was still on from when he'd left it that morning and a quick glance showed him that he had three new emails – all from SPR._

_He'd look at them tomorrow, right now the day's events had caught up with him and he just wanted to sleep._

_He didn't even bother to turn the laptop off._

There was an incessant beeping noise.

Itachi groaned and rolled over, away from the sound, then yelped as that put pressure on his bad arm. The pain woke him up enough for him to reach over to his alarm clock and smack the 'off' button. There was no difference and the sound continued. He grumbled something incoherent and looked blearily around his room for the source of the noise.

His laptop had reverted back to showing his desktop screen, and an icon was flashing on the tool bar.

"Wha' the hell?"

Pulling the duvet around his shoulders, the Uchiha crawled off his futon and over to the low desk. He rubbed his eyes to see the screen better, and clicked on the flashing symbol.

"Morning sunshine!"

Itachi stared at the webcam image that had popped up, still trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes.

"Mai-chan? What the hell do you want? It's..." He glanced at the computers clock. "...Urgh, it's half four in the morning!"

The girl on the screen laughed. "Yeah, I know, Naru told me that you called him at some ungodly hour of the night, so asked me to return the favour. It's half one in the afternoon here."

"Figures." Itachi yawned and tried to force himself awake a bit more. At least he didn't have to use his brain when talking to Mai, as long as he remembered not to use English. That was no problem though, Japanese came easier than English when he wasn't concentrating.

"So, how's life? All fun and excitement? You must be busy if you aren't answering your emails." Mai chirped happily.

"Well, I got knifed yesterday and the town's most notorious gang is baying for my blood."

The girl laughed for a few seconds, then stopped at the look on Itachi's face. "Oh my God! You're _serious_?! What the hell did you do?"

Itachi managed to get his brain in gear enough to explain the past week's events. By the time he'd got to the end of it, Mai was looking horrified.

"_Did_ you put a curse on that guy?" She asked.

"Of course not." The Uchiha said tiredly. He rubbed his arm, as a twinge of pain shot up from the wound.

Mai opened her mouth to say something, but another person got there first.

"Can you be certain?" Naru pushed his assistant out of the way and took her seat. A small smile crossed his face. "You look like hell."

"Hi to you too!" Itachi grumbled, scowling blearily at his cousin. "I take it I have you to thank for this wakeup call?"

"Yes, now answer the question."

The Uchiha couldn't be bothered to snap back at being treated like he was younger. "No, I can't be certain." He ran a hand over his face. "I don't _think_ I did, but hell I really don't know. Oh God Naru, I don't know. I...I was angry. I suppose there's a chance that I did, I've used my powers accidently before, but I'd really thought I'd gained enough control to stop that from happening!" He brought his fist down on the table, making the laptop wobble, and causing Naru to jump.

"Okay, calm down Uchiha. Freaking out won't solve this."

"I am _not_ freaking out! I'm just in pain, I'm worried, and I've not had enough sleep." Itachi took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment to centre himself. "I don't want to cause another death, accidently or not."

Naru worried his lower lip for a moment. "You still blame yourself for Shisui." He stated finally.

Itachi nodded tiredly, although this seemed more an emotional fatigue than physical. "Of course I do, wouldn't you? It still haunts me every day when I see my brother glare at me, and my college peers avoid me. I don't want someone else to die from sheer stupidity." He didn't need to add that this time it really _would_ be his fault.

"It's unlikely you're the cause of this." A third voice came out of the speaker, and Naru glanced up in surprise as a hand fell on his shoulder.

"Hi Lin." Itachi greeted with a small smile as the tall man drew a chair up to get into view of the SPR webcam.

Lin just nodded his head in return, before turning back to the case in hand. "If you're this adverse to the curse, it would have dissipated already; you're strong enough to subconsciously cast and remove it."

Naru gave his assistant an odd look. "I don't think it works like that Lin."

"Hey, you aren't the curses expert around here!" Itachi snapped. Naru glared at him, and the Uchiha smirked back before turning his gaze to Lin again. "What were you saying?"

A flicker of amusement crossed Lin's face before he went into rapid-fire Mandarin. Naru glowered between the man sitting next to him and the face on his laptop screen, as Itachi replied smoothly and faultlessly in the same language. For all that Naru prided himself on being a know-it-all genius, he had a huge hole in his knowledge when it came to languages. It explained why he'd lived in Japan for a good few years and _still_ couldn't read or write in kanji.

"Are you even certain it's a curse?" Lin was asking.

"I'm about 80 certain. From the information I've got I know this guy is in serious trouble, and whilst I don't really care what happens to him, I'd rather it wasn't my fault." Itachi drummed his fingers on the table. He'd woken up a little now; at least, he'd woken enough to coherently employ his language skills and remind himself of his Mandarin. "What should I do?"

"For now? Nothing." Lin smiled at the confusion on his friend's face. "Look, from what you know, the accidents are merely causing minor injuries – painful, annoying, embarrassing, but hardly dangerous. Hold on for a while longer. You need confirmation that you're the cause before you make a move."

The Uchiha nodded slowly. "And I'll know how?"

Lin shrugged. "Do I look like a teacher? You'll know. You need to figure these things out for yourself Itachi-san, you can't keep asking for help all the time."

Itachi frowned. "I hardly keep 'asking for help'! And if you'll recall, I was the one who gave _you_ the breakthrough on that case last month."

"So we have a mutulistic relationship, it doesn't mean I'll always have answers for you." Lin switched back to Japanese, causing Naru to perk up again. "That's all I can say, sorry." He left the screen, presumably to go back to his own desk.

"No conclusion then?" The SPR director asked grumpily.

"No." Itachi sighed, putting his head in his hands.

Naru smiled unsympathetically. "Well, I'm sure it will all be clearer in daylight." He glanced at his watch. "And sunrise is still another four hours away, plenty of time for you to sit and worry. I'd better go, so have a good day."

"Yeah, thanks for the absolutely _brilliant_ help and support you've given me." Itachi snapped, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "See you round, Narcissus." He added in English.

"Yeah," Naru switched to their second common language as well. "Have a good day, Weasel."

They both grinned before Naru hit the off button on his webcam, causing Itachi's laptop to revert back to desk top. The big clock in the top right corner of the screen proclaimed that it was five o'clock in the morning. He sighed heavily. His arm was hurting like a bitch, his brain was now wide awake: there was little point in getting up. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't too lazy to just play solitaire for a few hours. Looking up, he couldn't be bothered to move, so expended a little energy on twitching the curtains aside using his ESP.

It was raining. _Again_. You really had to love Britain in October. It was still as dark as a tomb out there – as Naru had said, he still had about four hours until sunrise. Not that the light would get through with such heavy cloud cover.

What a simply _wonderful_ start to the day!

_No milk in the house again, bloody typical! So much for having porridge for breakfast! He sighed grumpily; time to pop over to the news agents then._

_And of course, it was still raining. Lady luck really HATED him at the moment!_

_Puddles soaked his boots, and drenched the bottoms of his trousers as he splashed along the pavements. The day was still barely dawning, and the world was a dingy grey that hid the houses and street lights behind a mantle of murk._

_It also muffled the sounds of the early morning._

_He looked both ways and stepped into the street. The sound of the car engine didn't reach his ears until far too late._

_The silver sedan hadn't bothered with turning its lights on, so never saw the figure in the road until it was nearly on top of him. The brakes were hit, and the tyres squealed on the wet tarmac, too little too late. The young man hit the bonnet with a cry of pain and was thrown under the car chassis, one front tyre clipping his side and the following back one catching his out-flung arm. His scream cut short as his head impacted with the road surface._

Deidara couldn't understand what was up with his friend. Itachi seemed worried about the whole situation with Pein, worried to the point of actually asking if they should get in contact with the guy.

Of course, Deidara had no intention of helping the man who had taken his best friend away from him. The numerous fights he'd since had with the gang leader just strengthened the bad blood between the two of them.

The blonde was now sitting in his art lesson, happily doing what he did best – sculpting. The class of eleven was somewhat depleted this lesson, with three on a geography field trip, and another two off ill with the traditional winter flu. Even so, the pupils had – by habit – taken their normal seats which had spread them pretty thinly around the large room.

Silence reigned supreme, broken only by the slap of a wet paint-brush on a canvas, or the hum of someone's MP3. The teacher – as usual – had just popped her head into the room at the start of the lesson to see if anyone had any questions, and then had buggered off back to the staff-room. That left the class to work as and how they liked – a perfect atmosphere for the budding young artists.

The serenity was shattered by a sudden rendition of Blackmore Night's 'Old Hanging Tree.' Konan sighed and pulled her mobile out of her pocket, irritably flicking her eyes over the caller ID before answering it.

"What Pein? I'm in the middle of a fucking lesson here!"

Deidara had glanced up at the mention of the girl's brother, so saw Konan look surprised, then apologise quite politely – apparently it was someone else using Pein's phone. She seemed worried; questioning the caller's identity. Then it was like an electric shock had gone up her spine and she sat bolt upright, all colour draining from her face.

"_What_?!" Leaping up from her seat, Konan pocketed her phone. Her chair fell over as she dashed from the room.

Deidara didn't actually think _why_ he ran after her, but he found himself out in the corridor, running behind the blue-haired girl. He found Konan bent over one of the rubbish bins, throwing up. When she finished and looked up to glare murderously at Deidara her cheeks were wet with tears.

"What do _you_ want you bastard?!" She screamed at him.

The blonde was taken aback by the ferocity in her voice.

"I came to see if you're okay." It sounded pathetic even to him.

"_Okay?_ Like _you_ fucking care!" She stormed towards him, sobbing and snarling at the same time. "That was the hospital calling, Pein's been hit by a car!" She shrieked. "He's in emergency surgery right now, he could be _dying!_"

It was like an iceberg hitting the gut. Deidara hadn't expected to hear something like that in a million years; he had no idea what to say or do.

Konan was pacing the width of the corridor, one hand at her head, the other clenched around her phone.

"Oh God, I've got to be calm." She was still sobbing, hiccupping slightly as she spoke. "Okay, okay, calm down girl, calm...I've got to get to the hospital. Oh God...!" She dashed back over to the bin to throw up again.

"Uh...do you want a lift? I've got my car with me." Deidara really had no idea how to handle the situation, so opted for being helpful. Konan may have annoyed him incessantly, and he hated Pein, but he knew how awful it was to have a loved one hurt.

Konan stared at him with red-rimmed eyes. Black trails down her cheeks showed where her mascara and kohl had run. "I wouldn't get a lift with you if you were the last person on earth!" She spat. "It's _your_ fault this happened! You and that freak you call a friend! Well congrats; you've succeeded in adding another victim to Itachi's body count. I hope you're happy!"

She turned and ran from the building into the pouring rain, leaving a silent Deidara behind her.

Deidara stayed in the class-room for the next three hours. The room was specially set aside for sixth form only, so there was no real limit for how long he could stay there. Technically the fact that he had an RE lesson should have made him realise it was time to go, then logic reminded him that the lesson would just be boring, and Itachi would take decent notes that he could copy.

A collection of small birds and insects was beginning to hem him in to the desk, as his hands worked mindlessly with the wet clay. His brain was trying to focus on anything but the fact that his nemesis was currently in surgery, and that he was somewhat to blame.

It wasn't working very well.

He ran out of clay after a while, so picked up his sketchpad and began to draw, letting his pencil create what it wanted. By the time his frantic mind had wound down from a mad whine to a more comfortable purr he'd filled a good half of the book. Flicking through the new pictures he was greeted with a collection of sketches that Salvador Dali would have had trouble coming up with even with the help of LSD.

So it seemed that his current mental state wasn't all that good. Guilt maybe?

Looking at the clock the blonde realised that it was only an hour to go until the end of school, and he was surrounded by hundreds of models, sketches and paper aeroplanes. Hmm...Probably time to leave then. He abandoned his stuff and went off to hunt down Itachi.

Deidara found the Uchiha in the library, pouring over a book on the Socio-political Highlights of the Late Seventeenth Centaury.

"That looks dull."

Itachi lanced up at him with a smile, before moving aside a little to give his friend room to sit down.

"Actually it's rather fascinating. And where were you in R.E.?"

Deidara frowned, dumping his bag on the table. "I was in art."

Itachi put the book down to fold his hands on the table top. "You sound troubled, what's happened?"

"Pein's in hospital."

"_What?!_" His reaction was almost identical to what the blonde's had been.

Deidara quietly explained what had occurred earlier that morning with Konan. "Look Itachi, this is getting really serious now, are you sure you haven't done this?"

Itachi scowled, clenching his fist. "Sure? No, I'm not sure. I spent about half an hour this morning talking about this with my cousin, and all I can say is I don't think it's me." The flower pot with its plastic plant in the centre of the table began to wobble violently. "I don't _know._"

Deidara glanced at the flower pot – remembering his talk with Sasuke yesterday – and put his hand on his friend's uninjured arm. "Calm down, freaking out won't help."

The Uchiha nodded slightly, well aware that Naru had told him exactly the same thing. "Okay, I'm calm."

"Good. Now is there anything you can do to find out if the curse is yours?"

"No." He shook his head. "I tried this morning," – after about six games of solitaire – "But I need something of Pein's, like a hair or such to focus the spell on."

"And you can't use one of those voodoo doll things?"

Itachi sighed heavily. "Hitogota, not voodoo, and no, I'd be using a charm for a charm on a curse; it would all cancel out. And I know that because I did try it. The Hitogota didn't do a thing, and the curse paper I used caught fire."

Deidara smiled slightly. "That must have been entertaining."

"It was certainly a challenge to stop the fire alarm from going off."

A sudden shrill noise made both of them jump and look around.

"Damn! That's mine." Deidara fished his phone out and flicked it open without checking the caller ID. "Hello?"

"_Hello Deidara."_

The blonde pulled his phone away from his ear and stared at it blankly for a moment, before bringing it back.

"Sasori? What the hell? I didn't think you still had my number."

"_Well I do. We need to talk, meet me in the park in fifteen minutes."_

The line went dead, just as the librarian scurried over to tell him to put the phone away. At least he managed to finish the call before being thrown out of the library.

"I'll call you later." He muttered to Itachi before holding his hands up in surrender and letting the little bantam of a librarian shoo him out.

There were actually three parks in the town, but Deidara knew which one Sasori meant. As kids they'd commandeered the one next to their primary school to play in, and over the years it had just become a place to hang out. Deidara hadn't been back there since their fall out.

As expected it was still chucking it down as the blonde drove through the water logged streets. His little second hand Corsa did its best, but the windscreen wipers were having trouble keeping up with the downpour. He reached the park and found a handy place up along the pavement to stop the car and kill the engine. Through the driving rain he spotted someone lurking under the trees, and recognising the profile he waved them over.

Sasori got into the passenger's side, soaked through and shivering. He merely nodded to his one-time-friend and proceeded to blow on his hands to warm them up. Deidara rolled his eyes at the dramatics and turned the car's radiator on.

"You should have brought an umbrella with you."

"Whatever."

There was a pause as both tried to think of a way to start the necessary conversation without causing an argument.

"Your grandma doing okay?" Deidara asked finally.

Sasori nodded. "She's got a bit of a cold, but she's doing fine otherwise."

"Good."

Another, longer pause.

Finally Sasori shifted in his seat. "I take it you heard what happened."

"Yeah. Is he okay?"

"Concussion, a broken arm and some internal bleeding. On the whole it could have been a lot worse." The red-head glared at Deidara. "And it very nearly was worse! Do you have any idea what would happen if he died?"

Deidara shrugged. "The town loses its mafia boss?"

"Don't be pedantic! Pein's parents are both in jail with life sentences for murder, he's all Konan has. He's her legal guardian, and if something happens to him God knows what will happen to her!" Sasori snapped. "And it looks like something _will_ happen to him thanks to your little friend!"

"And did _you_ know that Itachi was nearly killed yesterday?" Deidara shot back. "We were attacked and he got knifed!"

"Yes I do know, and Orochimaru is no longer welcomed by any of us, Pein had never told him to attack you!"

The two were nearly touching noses, both yelling at the tops of their voices. Sasori seemed to realise this as he backed away a little.

"Look Deidara, I didn't ask you here for a shouting match." He said in quieter tone.

"Then what _do_ you want?!"

"I...I came to ask for help." Sasori muttered.

Deidara bit back the insult he'd had ready – it wasn't like Sasori to admit needing help, the guy was fiercely independent. And judging from how his cheeks now matched his scarlet hair, the red-head wasn't happy with the situation either.

"There was a time when I knew I could trust you. We promised to always be there for each other." He said finally.

Deidara snorted. "Yeah, back when we were _friends_." He spat.

"Dei, you aren't making this any easier!"

"Good!"

"Dei, please just listen!"

Deidara folded his arms, but gave a short nod to show that Sasori could continue.

"Thank you." The red-head fiddled with his damp sweater cuff. "I wanted to ask you to talk with your friend, the Uchiha. Pein is in trouble, and he's too proud to do anything to stop it."

"Itachi's not to blame, he hasn't done anything. I don't know where this curse has come from, but I know it's not Itachi."

"I'm not saying it is, but it's well known that Itachi knows about these sorts of things. Maybe he can take the curse off."

Deidara had to admit that that hadn't occurred to him. "Why should I _want_ the curse to be taken off him?" He asked coldly. "You recall that he tried to beat seven types of crap out of me just under a fortnight ago? Not forgetting the fact that you were standing next to him and seemed quite happy with it."

"Yes, I know. If it helps; I wasn't actually all that happy."

"And that makes me feel _so_ much better!"

Sasori rolled his eyes. "Whatever. All I'm asking is that you see if Itachi can do anything." He sighed heavily. "I failed my best friend in the past, and by doing so lost his friendship. If I fail Pein then he'll lose his life. I can't let that happen. Losing one best friend is hard enough."

Deidara was silent for quite a while. The car's old radiator hummed gently in the background until the blonde's sigh hid the noise.

"Fine then. I'll talk to Itachi." He said quietly, finally admitting defeat.

Sasori smiled slightly. "Thank you." He moved to open the car door. "I'd better get going, Gran will be worrying."

Deidara looked out at the driving rain and sighed. "I'll give you a lift."

Itachi was in his room working on an essay when his phone rang. Putting it onto speaker so that he could continue working, he pressed the answer button.

"Hello?"

"_Itachi? It's me, can we talk?"_

"Go ahead."

"_I just spoke to Sasori, he says Pein's alright, mores' the pity." _Deidara's voice carried a trace of amusement. _"But he also had a favour to ask you."_

"To ask _me_?" Itachi stopped typing to concentrate on the conversation.

"_Yeah. Even if you didn't cast the hex, can you still remove it?"_

"In theory." He drummed his fingers on the table. "I must admit that it hadn't occurred to me, but yes I can."

On the other end of the phone Deidara sighed. _"If you can, then will you?"_

"Well...I don't know...I hadn't intended to ever go near the guy again." Itachi said with a frown. "But doing nothing when I could do something is as bad as just walking up to the guy and shooting him."

"_Do you own a gun?"_

"No!"

"_Sorry, but you gotta admit it's tempting."_ Deidara laughed. _"So, can and will you help him?"_

Itachi sighed. "Well, he tried to beat you up, one of his cronies knifed me, and the whole gang hate our guts...I suppose it might help things if I sort this mess out. It wouldn't look good for me if he dies."

Deidara snorted. _"Ooh, getting moral are we? Okay, I'll give Sasori a call and tell him it's a go."_

Itachi affirmed it and pressed the end call button. He looked at the half finished essay, then saved it and shut his computer down. Looks like he had some preparations to do.

Deidara lay on his back on his bed, eyes lazily tracing the posters on his ceiling as he punched a familiar number into his mobile. It rang twice before it was answered.

"_Well?_"

"Hello to you too Sasori."

"_Yeah, whatever, did you talk to him?"_

Deidara twirled a lock of hair around his finger. "Yes I did, and he's agreed to help."

There was a relieved exhale on the other end of the line. _"Good. That's good. Can the two of you meet us tomorrow?"_

"I guess so. Where?"

"_Do you remember where Pein's house is?"_

The blonde rolled his eyes. "Of course I do. What time?"

"_Well, he'll get home tonight, so say...um, eleven tomorrow morning?"_

"We'll be there." Deidara ended the call and drummed his fingers thoughtfully on his thigh for a moment. Then he picked the mobile up again and texted a meeting place and time to Itachi.


	8. Chapter 8

"_Do you remember where Pein's house is?"_

_The blonde rolled his eyes. "Of course I do. What time?"_

"_Well, he'll be home tonight, so say...um, eleven tomorrow morning?"_

"_We'll be there." Deidara ended the call and drummed his fingers thoughtfully on his thigh for a moment. Then he picked the mobile up again and texted a meeting place and time to Itachi._

Itachi met his blonde friend outside the newsagents as agreed and they walked through the housing estate towards Pein's house. It was a silent journey, both were deep in thought.

The house was in the middle of a row of terraces, an ordinary and mundane building with a front garden full of weeds. Two run-down cars were in the drive, with a motorcycle hiding behind them, which Deidara recognised as belonging to Pein.

The blonde pulled his phone out and texted Sasori, preferring that to ringing the doorbell and having a less friendly face open it. A few moments later and the side door opened to reveal a red-headed figure.

"Hi Deidara." Sasori muttered. He didn't look overly thrilled with the situation, no more so than the pair standing on the drive. "You'd better come in."

Deidara followed first, Itachi trailing after him with reluctance. Sasori led them through the small kitchen into the living room.

Itachi was surprised to realise just how worried he was about this meeting. Of course, he knew damn well that he himself wouldn't be in any trouble, but he didn't want Deidara to end up getting hurt. It was a very troublesome situation the two of them had found themselves in, and if this was the only way to untangle the mess, then so be it.

The room was quite crowded already, and the two new-comers made it positively claustrophobic. The two settees were full, with Pein himself wrapped in a blanket and sat on an overstuffed bean-bag. He had his right arm in a plaster cast and sling – coincidently the same arm Itachi still had bandaged from the knifing – and there was a steri-strip running along his forehead. The other cuts and grazes went without saying.

Five pairs of eyes – six including Sasori's – glared at the two friends. Konan stood up, half confrontational, half protective of her brother. Itachi met the stares evenly, not allowing himself to be intimidated. Deidara was slightly less confident but also refused to cower like they hoped he would.

Finally Pein stopped the mega-watt staring contest and stood up.

"Thanks for coming." He said. The tone of voice made it very clear that he _wasn't_ happy to be having this meeting.

"This needs to be sorted out." Itachi replied equally coolly.

"Yes it does." There was a flicker on the orange-haired man's face, very brief, but there was a definite sign of vulnerability. "Can you stop what's happening to me? Can you get rid of your curse?"

Itachi sighed. "Look Pein, I am pretty damn sure that I didn't put that curse on you." He stated bluntly. "You and I don't know each other, and to be frank I don't actually care what happens to you. But it's my moral duty to help you, as one human to another. Yes, I'll take that curse off, and once I'm done it will clear this whole mess up and we never have to see each other again." He folded his arms as well as he could with his injured arm. "Do you concur?"

Pein raised a pierced eye-brow. "You talk like such a posh snob Uchiha, but seeing as you appear to be my only chance, yeah I _concur_." He said sarcastically.

"Then you have to do exactly what I say."

Konan frowned at that. "Pein, I really don't like the sound of this. Messing around with something that sounds like it's from Harry Potter? Not good!"

There were murmurs of agreement from the rest of the group, although they sounded reluctant. It had been a long and crazy fortnight as there wasn't a person in the room who wanted things to continue. It was Sasori who voiced this.

"Pein, just do as he says. I may not know or trust him, but I can vouch for Deidara and Dei thinks this is the right thing to do."

Said blonde stared at the red-head in surprise and something akin to grudging respect. He hadn't expected that from his one-time-friend. Pein nodded shortly at Sasori's statement.

"I'm sick of what's going on – that car could have killed me yesterday, and the next accident might finish the job. I want all of this to end and end now." He met Itachi's gaze squarely. "What do you want me to do?"

Itachi took remarkably little time to sort things out to his liking. He made Pein's friends push the furniture to the sides of the room to clear a space, then told them to stand in a large circle. Pein himself was made to stand in the middle next to Itachi.

"Okay, what do I need to do?" Pein asked carefully.

Itachi was going over the procedure again in his head, but opened his eyes when he heard the question.

"You don't need to do anything, just stand still." He said, moving round the circle. "I'll tell you guys how this works."

It was a confusing concept. Itachi tried to explain what he intended to do, but even Deidara had trouble getting his head round it.

"So let me get this straight." The blonde said slowly. "You take the curse off as if it's a physical _thing_ and it will zap back to the person who cast it?"

The Uchiha rolled his eyes at the crude summery. "Broadly speaking, although 'zap' is not quite the term I'd use. The curse will leave Pein and be recast onto its owner."

Konan was the only one to pick up on the implications. "What happens to the original caster, when the curse goes back to them? Do they then start having these accidents?"

"No." The Uchiha glanced at her. "It hits all in one go, I've seen it before – had it happen to me once – it's rather like being hit by a ton of bricks."

Pein was beginning to look somewhat worried. "And do _I_ feel any...effects?"

"You won't feel a thing." Itachi sighed. "And since we don't know who the caster is, the curse will either hit me because I am the caster – which I doubt – or zoom off out through a wall to its owner and we'll never know who it was."

Pein nodded rather nervously. He didn't like the idea, none of them did, but it was the only way they could see to sorting the mess out.

"Okay, go ahead." He said stiffly.

Itachi bowed his head – a little gesture that reminded everybody of his Japanese heritage. He noted the small roll of eyes and wink Deidara gave him and smiled slightly in return.

"Okay then, no one interferes once this has started, it can be dangerous." He ordered. There was a general muttering – Pein's gang weren't used to taking orders from anyone but their leader – but they all nodded grudgingly. Itachi acknowledged their reply, then blanked them all out to focus on the task in hand.

The Uchiha began to chant softly, a crooning monotone that was soothing and made the edgy people in the room calm down a little. It was worlds away from the harsh tone and vicious mannerisms he'd used back in the alley way. The words weren't English, and only Deidara – being a manga and anime lover – recognised them as Japanese. What he didn't know was that it was a highly formalised dialect, and an ancient one at that.

Very gradually the results became visible. An outline began to form around Pein, a pulsing rolling aura in deep purple. He froze completely, staring in horrified fascination at the thing that surrounded him. His friends all let out variations on a theme of startled gasps. Konan was the exception, giving a small squeal and sitting down heavily on the arm of the settee with her face buried in her hands. No one actually paid her any attention since they were too riveted by what was happening in the circle. Only Hidan eased his way over to her to put an arm round her shaking shoulders.

"Is...Is that..." Pein's voice was hushed, as if he were afraid to break the silence.

"Yes, that's the curse." Itachi replied quietly; he had a slightly thicker accent than usual, something that always happened when he used his second language.

The purple aura began to gently peel away from its victim and rise up above Pein's head. He watched it like one would watch a resurrected velociraptor: in awe, but well aware of just how dangerous it is. It balled up into a dense cloud of rolling anger.

"Well." Itachi stated, slowly walking around Pein and the personal black-cloud. "I can tell you straight away that that is _not_ a curse I cast. Mine are always crimson."

Pein laughed nervously, not daring to take his eyes off the broiling haze that hovered over his head like the Hindenburg. "You cast these things a lot then?"

"Enough of them." The Uchiha was studying the thing like it was some rare and beautiful antelope. "This was put on you by an amateur, a gifted amateur, but an amateur none the less."

"Right, nice, now _why is it still on me?!_"

Itachi smiled slightly at the visible panic on the villages biggest gang boss's face. "It's searching. It will seek out its caster and then-" the cloud suddenly curled in on itself. "Ah, bingo, there it goes."

The purple haze shot away from Pein's head like an arrow, causing the gang members to all duck out of nervous reflex. It headed towards the far wall as Pein breathed a sigh of relief, then did an abrupt U-turn. Itachi jumped infront of the orange-haired man, ready to deflect the pulsing cloud, but it swerved around both of them.

"What the-?" Itachi spun round at the agonised cry behind him. He was just in time to see the curse slam straight into –

"_Deidara!_"

The blonde was thrown back as the purple haze struck him square in the chest. He let out a wail of pain as he hit with the wall behind him, the dual impact making him feel as if he had been rammed by a car from both front and behind. There was no way for him to describe how it felt as the curse flowed back through his body, curling up in his veins like a scolded dog slinking back to its kennel.

Then gravity seemed to remember that it had a claim on him, and the artist fell back to the floor with an ornament-rattling _thud_. He groaned on impact as he belly-flopped onto the hardwood floor, face screwing up in agony and reflexes sluggish when his hands shot out to cushion the fall only _after_ he'd landed. Bright crimson dots were dancing around inside his closed eye-lids as he felt his grip on consciousness loosen.

There were noises all around, people yelling and feet running to and fro. It sounded like a woman was crying – Konan then. And then there was a gentle reassuring weight on his shoulder. The pain began to slowly ebb away, taking the crimson tide with it. After a few moments he managed to open his eyes and turn his head to one side to see Itachi kneeling next to him.

"Deidara, are you alri-"

"_Why did it hit me_?!"

Itachi looked taken aback for a moment at the fierceness in the question, before schooling his features again.

"Yes, I'm sure we'd all like to know the answer to that one." Sasori put in from behind them.

Deidara pushed himself up so that he was at least sitting upright, Itachi tried to help him do so, but was pushed away. The blonde brought a hand up to his chest, wincing as he gently pressed against a particularly painful area. He knew from experience that the fiery ache meant very badly bruised if not fractured ribs.

"Why did it hit me?" He hissed again, glaring at his friend.

Sasori had pushed his way past the others who were crowding round and wrapped the blanket Pein had abandoned around Deidara's shoulders. The blonde pushed the material away irritably, but with a quick smile to the red-head for the thought.

"Well?" Pein demanded. "Why did it hit Deidara? You said it would go back to the original caster!" His friends knew him well enough to detect the tiny hint of worry there, but worry at _what_?

Itachi met Deidara's accusing gaze evenly. "It did go back to its caster." He said quietly. "As I said; it was cast by an amateur."

The blonde stared at him open mouthed. "Wha...? _Me_?? I can't do that!"

"Apparently you can." Pein said coldly.

Deidara switched his stunned gaze to the pierced-man. "You can't seriously think _I_ did it can you?!"

"Well, considering the hard evidence, I'd have to say; _yes I do think you did it!_"

Itachi was still staring at the shaken blonde - who would have thought that Naru would be right? So the artist _was_ psychic huh? He shook his head with a smile at the thought. That meant he was no longer alone! In this strange country where no one understood or believed in the ancient arts, and he'd finally found someone with a power similar to his own. He could hardly believe it!

"Itachi? What the _hell_ is so funny?!" Deidara demanded, glaring furiously as the Uchiha began to chuckle.

"You honestly had no idea you could do that did you?"

"Because I _can't_ do that!"

Behind them Pein was glancing between the two of them. "Deidara? Didn't you mean to do that then?"

Deidara glowered. "Of course not! I don't know what your game is Itachi – blaming this on me – but I can't curse people!"

Itachi sighed, expecting this denial – it had happened to him when he'd first found out that he was different. He held his left hand up, palm facing outwards. "Put your hand against mine." He ordered. The blonde just looked at his hand suspiciously. "It won't hurt." He added. That made Deidara comply, although not from relief, but to prove that he wasn't afraid. Itachi didn't need to concentrate very hard to cause the little purple sparks erupt from his friends finger tips.

"Recognise the colour?" He asked smugly, letting the blonde's hand go. Deidara just stared at his own fingers.

"That's the same purple the cloud was." Konan supplied hesitantly.

"Exactly. It's a bit like a finger print. That's your colour Deidara, I can't fake it."

Deidara was shaking his head violently by this point. "No, nonononono, you've got it wrong, you must have! I'm not special, I can't do stuff like that!" He sounded panicked as he glanced up at Pein and the rest of the gang. "I wouldn't curse someone!"

Pein's initial reaction had been anger, but seeing how distressed Deidara was, he wondered if the blonde really was to blame. Sasori was very much of the same mind, and felt that he ought to stick up for his one-time-friend.

"Are you sure about this Itachi?" He asked. "Deidara's never shown any signs of being able to do this."

"On the contrary." The Uchiha stated. "He's been exhibiting all the signs of the classic untrained psychic."

Deidara spluttered incoherently. "I _what_?!"

His exclamation was mirrored by similar ones around him.

Itachi nodded, looking around at the confused faces surrounding him and the blonde. Said blonde was panicking to the point of hysteria, not having a clue what he was being blamed for and what the repercussions were going to be. It didn't help that he was still in pain and having difficulty breathing. There was a calming touch on his shoulder and he glanced up to see Itachi smile at him.

"Deidara, do you remember how I knew you were in trouble when this lot were trying to beat you up?" The Uchiha asked. The rest of the group bristled at the reminder.

"I...Yeah, you said something about hearing me call for help." Deidara said, thrown by the abrupt subject change.

Pein frowned, looking puzzled. "But he didn't make a sound." He pointed out hesitantly. Things were beginning to go from strange to downright freaky and the gang leader just wanted it all to be over and done with. The curse was apparently gone, and he didn't care who was to blame any more, it just made life too confusing it seemed.

"No, but I definitely heard him. Anyone care to explain that?" Itachi asked smugly.

"You can read minds." Sasori stated bluntly. "You can do other freaky stuff, so I suppose you heard him mentally screaming. ESP and all that crap."

The Uchiha did the little nod-tilt-head movement that suggested that the red-head had got it half right. "I can't read minds, it's my big failing. But a psychic can speak into others minds – even if those others don't have the gift."

There was a general movement as all gazes switched to fall on Deidara, who continued to stare in horror at his friend.

"So as you may have guessed, my theory is that Deidara was mentally calling out, and that's what I heard." Itachi continued. "More evidence to that is the way you-" And here he directed his comments directly to the blonde. "- tend to answer a question I haven't actually spoken out loud, and have an uncanny knack of getting me to trust you. Remember that first day we spoke? Within the few hours of first meeting I'd told you what I could do and even demonstrated some things. I'd never have done that under normal circumstances!"

Deidara had visibly paled, and was beginning to tremble violently, mutely shaking his head.

"So are you saying he could also have put the curse on me mentally?" Pein asked, beginning to see where the Uchiha was going with this.

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

Deidara managed to regain his voice. "What? _No_! I didn't...wouldn't..._couldn't_!" He pulled himself away from Itachi. "I _can't do these things._ You seem adamant that I can, but really, I swear I don't know how." He switched his frantic gaze to Pein. "And even if I could I wouldn't do that to you!"

"Not intentionally you wouldn't." Itachi put in. "But down in that closed up alley way, with no one to save you and a beating on its way, how were you feeling right then Deidara? Scared? Angry? I bet you would have done _anything_ to get out of that situation. And you didn't know it, but you had a survival instinct that cut in and did the job for you. If you can mentally connect with someone who has no ESP, placing a curse on your attacker would be easy. And you'd never even know that it had happened. As I said that first day we met; there are many ways that people gain paranormal gifts, and one is through a life changing event such as bereavement."

Deidara stared opened mouthed at him. "When mum died..." He whispered.

"Most probably."

Pein put his uninjured hand to his head with a groan. "Did he do it or not?" He asked tiredly.

"I think the answer to that would be 'yes', but he didn't do it intentionally." Itachi said, grinning at his stunned blonde friend.

Deidara hesitantly raised his gaze to see what Pein's reaction to this was. He wasn't the only one now staring at the gang leader, most – if not all – gazes in the room were focused on the orange-haired man. The weird developments had screwed with enough people's heads for them to just leave it to Pein to deal with it all.

The gang leader was silent for a long time, staring at Deidara with worrying intensity. The blonde huddled up even smaller under the close scrutiny, refusing to let Itachi mollycoddle him but also too intimidated to meet Pein's gaze. He was well aware that the guy could beat seven kinds of hell out of him and still have enough energy to kick his ass too, it wasn't a nice thought.

Pein could see all the various emotions flit across his victims face as he stood over the blonde, arms folded as well as he could with his sling. This guy was the reason for a fortnight of pain and accidents. This guy was why he'd nearly been killed by that car and why he was too nervy to ride his bike. Reason kicked in to remind him that the blonde had never intended to hurt him, but even so...

He looked down at the hunched up form that seemed to flinch under his gaze. He really ought to beat the little shit up; he needed to save face infront of his gang. It wouldn't look good if he let the Barbie-look-alike get away with it, he had an image to think of.

But the whole time his mind kept going back to one crucial point: _all this time you believed in the paranormal, and now you know that it's REAL! Do you really want to frighten off the people who can do this magic?_

So many different thoughts, _too_ many different thoughts!

And the whole time Deidara had such a...a _scared_ look on his face!

Pein couldn't help it. This was such a bemusing, unusual and _new_ situation that there really wasn't any other reaction that his brain could come up with.

It was a shock to the whole room when the infamous leader cracked up laughing. He just couldn't help it! Hunching over and clutching his stomach he laughed and laughed until he was red in the face.

Deidara stared at him, mouth open and eyes wide. Of all the reactions that this freakish situation could have caused, humour was not one he'd expected. He turned to look at Itachi and saw the same gobsmacked expression on his friend's face.

The other members of the gang were just as taken aback at their leader's reaction as the two outsiders were. Konan especially was shocked beyond belief at just how her brother was acting. Pein had been adamant at just how harshly he would dish out a punishment to whoever had made his life a living hell. And here he was laughing harder than he had in years. No one knew how to react to this development!

Oblivious to the stunned silence around him and still chuckling, Pein lent down and extended his uninjured hand to Deidara. The blonde stared at him in utter amazement. Slowly and with all eyes on the two of them he reached out and hesitantly accepted the hand. Pein pulled him up to his feet and then clapped him on the back.

"Wha-what? You aren't mad at me?" Deidara sounded stunned.

Pein shrugged with a smile. "To be honest, I don't think I can be. This isn't exactly a situation I know how to handle. And you seem genuinely horrified by what you did." He shook his head. "Lord knows, I should be beating you to a bloody pulp."

"So...You aren't going to?"

"I'm still considering it, believe me." Pein stopped laughing at last. "You looked so scared, it was hilarious!"

Deidara was confused, upset and hardly what you would call happy with the situation and having Pein laugh at him wasn't helping. He pulled away from the hand on his shoulder. "I'm not sure what you're getting at here!"

"What I'm saying is that we appear to have reached an impasse." Pein folded his arms awkwardly over the plaster cast. "The curse is gone, but I'm still hardly _happy_ with you."

The blonde understood where he was coming from _there_. After all, he supposed that technically he was the one at fault for _everything_ now. Man that sucked! He looked around the room at the other members of Pein's gang.

Most faces were still holding a similar stunned expression, although Itachi was grinning somewhat smugly. Konan was sitting on the arm of the sofa, watching the blonde, her expression rather shuttered. Deidara looked back at Pein, a new light in his eyes.

"I know how I can sort this out once and for all." He said firmly. "We'll be back where we started and can go back to not having to talk to each other ever again." At Pein's nod of acquiescence he turned to the man's sister. "Konan, can I talk to you?"

She tilted her head to one side, eyes narrowed for a moment as she studied him. Finally she nodded – just once – and rose up from her seat, indicating for him to follow her.

They went into the kitchen, and the girl closed the door behind them both. She leant against the counter and folded her arms with a glare. "Okay, what did you want to say?" She demanded.

Deidara quailed slightly under her furious gaze. "I...I wanted to apologise." He said quietly. At Konan's raised eyebrow he tried to emphasise his point. "I behaved terribly towards you, and I owe you a big apology. I was a complete and utter _twat_ and I'm really really sorry."

"You're sorry." Her voice was flat and devoid of warmth. "You called me such horrible things infront of our whole class, you _cursed_ my brother, and then you tell me you're _sorry?!_"

"Yes?" Deidara shirked under the glare laid on him. "Look, I can explain!"

"Please do, I'm _dying_ to hear what excuse you'll come up with."

"I'm gay!"

"...Oh..." Konan faltered with her next come back. Well...That was unexpected. _Very_ unexpected! Gay, huh? She intensified the glare. "If this is a joke..." She let the threat hang.

Deidara shook his head hurriedly. "I mean it, I'm not lying." He twisted the hem of his shirt wretchedly. "Look, this isn't something I like to make public. I told you because I need you to understand."

"All you've done is confuse me even more."

He rubbed his eyes with a groan. "Okay, look: You are a very _very_ attractive girl Konan. I...If I just turned you down then everyone would know I'm not exactly into women. I had to come up with a way to...to..."

"To turn me down without losing your masculinity in the process?" Konan asked with an acidic bite to her voice.

"Uh...Yeah, something like that." Deidara said wretchedly. "You're the most desired girl in sixth form, I'm already considered weird for turning you down, I had to do something drastic."

"And that involved slagging me off like you did?!"

"Yeah...I didn't handle that very well I guess."

A tiny smile lifted the corners of Konan's mouth. "No, you didn't."

Sensing the change in her mood towards him, Deidara risked a smile of his own. "I was a jerk and I know it. I'm really sorry; I never should have said what I did."

"No, you shouldn't have." Konan sighed, but her defensive posture relaxed a little. "Y'know, I never would have put you down as gay. You don't look or act it."

Deidara shrugged with an embarrassed grin. "Maybe not in public." He smiled tentatively at her. "So...Am I forgiven?"

"Maybe..." Konan tried to look stern, but her eyes were laughing.

"How about this," Deidara recognised that the tide was turning his way. "Do you want to go and see that Indiana Jones film you mentioned? My treat?"

"What?" The blue-haired girl looked surprised but pleasantly so. "You mean it?"

"Sure. It can't exactly be a date, since as I've just said; I'm not really one for girls, but I'd love to take you out for a film and dinner as friends."

Konan's smile grew and a faint blush coloured her cheeks. "O-Okay then, as friends." She reached out and shook his hand.

"Next Wednesday, after college?"

"Yeah, sure."

They went back into the main room, Konan beaming. Pein looked between his sister and the blonde.

"Did you two sort everything out?" He asked coldly, obviously unhappy at being left out of their little conversation. His eyes narrowed at Konan's happy smile and he glared suspiciously at Deidara.

"Yep, everything's grand!" Konan chirped, throwing herself back down onto the settee. She raised an admonitory finger as her brother opened his mouth again. "No, don't interfere, don't say anything, just accept that this is all sorted, done, finito, _over_!"

Pein raised his hands in mock surrender. "Okay, fine, don't start PMSing at me!" He snapped. He turned to glare at Deidara, who was standing next to Itachi again. "And do _you_ think that this is all over?"

Deidara nodded, meeting the gang leader's gaze head on. "We're back where we started; Konan and I have patched things up, there's not much else that can be done."

Pein's glare switched to Itachi, and he toned it down to a penetrating stare instead. "Are you certain that the curse is gone?" He asked sternly.

Itachi inclined his head. "Absolutely certain." He put a hand on Deidara's shoulder. "And I'm going to make sure a certain someone doesn't cause another accident like this again." Deidara flushed an embarrassed red at the slight reprimand. "With a bit of training this won't happen again."

Pein looked satisfied with the answer and his aggressive stance relaxed somewhat. "Fine then. If that is all sorted then I guess there is no need to hang around." He stated evenly.

Dismissed, as easy as that. There had been a problem, they had found a solution and now it was sorted. Pein had accomplished his aims of having the curse removed and was now no longer interested.

Itachi nodded once to the gang leader, before silently turning on his heel and leaving the room without another word. Deidara ran after him, surprised at the turn of events. He caught up with the Uchiha on the drive, where Itachi had paused to wait for him. A few moments later Sasori appeared.

"Sorry about him, he's not one to say thanks." The red-head sighed, running a hand through his thick hair. "You did a great job in there, Itachi." He grinned at Deidara. "And _you_! My God, who'd have thought?!"

Deidara shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets and kicking at the gravel to hide his embarrassment at the reminder of his..._weirdness._ "Yeah, I didn't exactly expect things to go like that." He said with a small grin. "I feel like Harry Potter." He looked up and met Sasori's gaze. "Thanks..." He added in a small voice. "You stood up for me. Why?"

Sasori grinned slightly. "Well, I guess old habits die hard." He said, refusing to meet Deidara's surprised gaze and watching the small stones that the blonde had kicked bounce along the drive-way. "And besides, you did agree to help Pein."

"Yeah, but still..."

Itachi looked between the two of them and quietly backed away to give them space. It looked like this was a rather important step in the relationship between the old friends. Neither noticed him leave.

"Do you remember that time when Pein was ill, back in year ten, and we spent the whole weekend over here playing on the Play-station and keeping him company?" Sasori asked finally.

Deidara gave a little snort of laughter. "Yeah, I remember. It was the only time him and I ever really got on, when we worked together to beat you on Grand Theft Auto." He shook his head with a sigh. "That was a great weekend."

"Yeah, and what about that time you and I re-enacted all three Starwars movies and you ended up having to play Princess Leia? That was hilarious!"

"And when we had that chemistry lesson and set fire to Sarutobi's desk!" Deidara laughed, nodding enthusiastically.

"And the infamous PE lesson with that badminton racket." Sasori gave a theatrical shudder. "I'll never forget that no matter how much I want to!" He looked up to see Deidara doubled over with laughter. "Oh, it wasn't _that_ funny!"

"It so was! Your _face_! I still have the photo you know!"

The red-head groaned. "You promised to delete it!"

"Yeah, well, I also promised not to put it on Myspace!"

The two looked at each other for a long moment before bursting out into uncontrollable laughter. The adrenaline was still running high, and now found its escape in bubbling giggles that reduced the two adults back to children. Deidara lent against the wall for support whilst Sasori was bent over, hands on his knees as he tried to regain his breath. The memories they shared were still obviously precious to both of them.

"Y'know," The red-head said, once he was able to speak again. "As much as I hated school, I really miss those times."

Deidara nodded, resting his head back against the brick wall. "Me too. Itachi's great, but he's not exactly the sort to joke around as the two of us did. He uses study periods to study in!" He pulled a face at that, then glanced up shyly to meet Sasori's gaze. "I miss having you around."

Sasori moved over to lean against the wall next to the blonde. "Yeah, Pein's good fun but...he isn't you."

"That's unbearably mushy, you know that right?" Deidara didn't move his head and just glanced sideways at the red-head instead. "But I have to agree; I miss having you around."

Sasori turned sideways to face the blonde. "Do you think we can ever be friends again? Or did we do too much damage to our friendship?"

Deidara did move his head then, to face his companion. "I don't know." He said slowly. "Maybe we did, but if that was the case would you have cared to stand up for me? And would we be able to have this conversation? Maybe we screwed up royally, but perhaps we can start over."

"You think?"

"Well not as a rule, since I'm blonde, but in this case yeah I do think." He grinned. "What do you say?"

Sasori smiled and nodded, holding out his hand. "Okay, let's give it a go. Friends?"

Deidara accepted and shook the proffered hand. "Yeah, friends."

"You two are so _cute_! I'm so glad you made up!"

They both looked up like guilty children to see Konan hanging on to the door frame and watching them with a goofy smile on her face. She giggled at their faces and patted them both on the head. "And I'm so going on to Myspace now to see that photo!" She whirled off again, leaving two stunned boys behind her.


	9. Chapter 9

The new day dawned just as gloomy and wet as the rest of the month had been, but with a little more potential to it

The new day dawned just as gloomy and wet as the rest of the month had been, but with a little more potential to it.

As he drove to school, Deidara found himself feeling more optimistic than he had in weeks. All things considered, it was probably the realisation that the whole mess with Pein was sorted out that put the spring in his step – well, under his wheel technically, since he was in a car and all.

He bounded into the Beach-hut with more enthusiasm than he'd shown for his education in a long while. Konan waved at him, which he returned with a cheesy grin before leaping over a table and jumping into the chair next to Itachi.

"Morning." The Uchiha had to smile at the blonde's antics.

"Good morning, good morning, sunbeams will soon shine throooouuuuuuugh!" Deidara sung the only line he could remember from the _Singing in the Rain_ classic, only stopping when Itachi smacked him on the head. "OW! Come on, I'm happy, sing with me! Good morning, good morn-OW!"

Itachi shook his head with a grin and put his book down. "You seem incredibly cheerful today, I take it the shock has worn off?"

"Nope, this is me cruising over the shock." Deidara said with a goofy grin.

"Did you even sleep last night?"

"Two hours, maybe two and a half." At his friend's incredulous stare the blonde tried to back-track. "But I spent the time drawing, so it wasn't like I wasn't doing something important!"

The Uchiha rolled his eyes and packed his stuff away as the bell rang. To be honest he'd predicted that Deidara would be like this, and had prepared himself for a completely over-the-top and hyperactive best friend. And when it's Deidara being over-the-top and hyperactive it takes a lot of preparation to find a good mindset. Still, an hour of meditation before school, and Itachi felt able to deal with anything from world war three to one of Deidara's art rants – Was there really a difference between the two anyway?

Registration went without incident, as did the first set of lessons. Deidara was singing again by break-time, and Itachi was grateful that they didn't share classes for the rest of the day. The blonde bounced off to his art lesson leaving his friend to walk at a more sedate pace to accountancy.

"Hey, Deidara!" Konan waved at him when he entered the class-room, and for the first time he willingly went over to sit next to her. The rest of the class stared dumb-founded at the two artists who had been infamous for their hatred of each other.

"How's Pein?" The blonde asked chirpily, throwing his sketch book onto the table.

"He's grand, better than he's been in weeks." Konan replied happily, placing her own work on the table with a little more care and decorum. "And how are you? Have you come to grips with the fact that you can do the same sort of things as Itachi?"

"Not really, I'm kinda blanking it until Itachi brings it up as a serious conversation topic."

"He hasn't yet?"

Deidara grinned. "I distracted him enough this morning." At Konan's raised eye-brow he shook his head hurriedly. "Oh get your mind out the gutter girl! I just started singing and annoyed him!"

She nodded with a teasing smile. "Yeah okay, sure."

"I never should have told you I was gay."

"Not if you like your sanity." She neatly folded a piece of yellow paper into a little seal. "Here you go, a friend."

Deidara picked it up and twirled it around in his fingers. "He's cute, what's he called?"

"Julian."

"No kidding?" He put it down on the table and lent down to rest his chin on the backs of his hands so that he was at eye level with it. The intensity of his stare made Konan lean down next to him.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, I figured that if I can curse someone maybe I can do other stuff. Itachi can move stuff with his mind, I was seeing if I could too."

Konan looked between the blonde and the piece of origami then glanced up. The rest of the class had gone back to their work and no-one was looking their way, so she refocused her gaze back on Deidara. "It's not really working." She said quietly, her voice making it quite certain that she hadn't believed it would.

"No, I couldn't do anything last time I tried either."

Konan laughed quietly. "Well, keep at it, maybe you'll get there with practice." Her gaze went a little more serious. "By the way, how are you feeling today? You took quite a blow yesterday."

He shrugged lightly, his gaze never leaving the seal. "I woke up barely able to move, but I took, like, a whole pack of neurofen in one go so now I can't feel a thing. Other than that I'm black and blue all over so essentially fine." He tilted his head a little to grin at her. "Worried about me?"

She punched his arm. "You wish!"

"How's Pein doing?"

"Much better. It's a relief to know that any accident he now has is his own bloody fault and not some malignant source of evil."

"Was there a compliment in there?" Asked the 'malignant-source-of-evil' sourly.

Konan sniggered. "Oh come on, it _was_ your fault, you can't expect me not to tease you about it."

He shrugged with an injured air. "Well, I didn't _try_ to hurt him."

"Have you asked Itachi for any help with controlling it? May come in handy. After all, you don't want to just curse everyone you fight with, do you?"

He laughed, giving up on his attempts at moving the origami by will-power alone. "Well, it's appealing, but I'd rather learn how to do it intentionally. I'll ask Itachi after school."

Itachi stared at him for so long that the silence began to feel uncomfortable. Deidara fidgeted a little, beginning to regret asking. Finally the Uchiha answered, although it was with another question.

"You want me to train you?"

"Well...in a manner of speaking...yeah. I guess." Deidara didn't realise that he was twisting his paint-stained shirt to breaking point until he heard the hem along the bottom rip. "Oh bugger!" Itachi hid a grin. "Well? Will you? I don't like the idea of accidently hurting people again."

Itachi bit his lip thoughtfully for a moment longer. "It isn't as easy as that. Yes I can teach you to control what you can do, but are you prepared for the consequences?"

"What consequences could there be?" Deidara laughed.

The Uchiha frowned at the reaction; he'd forgotten just how new Deidara was to the paranormal scene. They'd been joined at the hip for long enough that he had come to assume the blonde knew the basics, when of course he didn't. He tilted his head to one side, thinking of his next move. Then a wicked smile crossed his usually blank features.

Deidara wasn't happy with the look being directed at him. "What?"

"Nothing. Did you drive here today?"

"Uh...yeah, why?"

"Come on."

Itachi pulled the blonde out of the common room into the rain. Deidara realised where he was headed, so led the way over to the far end of the car-park. His little Corsa sat as far under the trees as he could get it, out of the wet. It beeped in welcome as he unlocked the door.

They both got in quickly out of the rain, and Deidara turned the engine on; in defiance, the cars radiator only blew out cold air. The blonde hurriedly turned it off, his cheeks warming to a glowing red with embarrassment.

"Sorry, she's a temperamental old thing." He said, patting the steering wheel affectionately. "Okay, where to?"

Itachi directed out of the school and through the centre of the village. They took the same route Deidara had when he'd gone to the park when he'd met up with Sasori. Infact, they were so close that the blonde half expected Itachi to tell him that was their destination. As it was, the Uchiha made him turn in to the side street a few yards up from the play-area.

It was one of the oldest parts of the village; the houses on either side dating back to pre-Victorian. They were leaning so heavily and so tall that they made the road seem like a cave. It was called Dark Lane for a very good reason.

Itachi got out of the car, not needing to worry about getting wet since the houses on either side of the road shielded them from the worst of the wind and rain. He walked a little way from the car before turning back to face the Corsa. Deidara had just climbed out and was watching him in confusion.

"Okay Itachi, it's cold and wet and I'm hungry, so what are we doing out here?" The blonde whined, rubbing his arms in a futile attempt to keep warm.

"We're here because you need to see what I _really_ do for a job." Itachi replied with a light smile, seemingly impervious to the miserable conditions. "You know I'm a paranormal researcher, but I don't think that you've really _understood_ what that means, so I've brought you here to meet a friend of mine."

Deidara shivered and looked around the dingy street. "A friend? _Here_? It's bloody miserable weather for a meeting. Doesn't he mind?"

"She, actually. And no, she doesn't." Itachi smiled enigmatically and lent against the one of cobweb-covered walls that made up the street.

"But _why-?_" Deidara was cut off mid-whinge by a very girlish squeal.

"Itachi! I haven't seen you for so long!"

Itachi's head shot up and his small smile grew into an outright grin as he focussed on a spot behind Deidara's back. "Penny, good to see you again. This is Deidara, the friend I said I'd bring to meet you."

Deidara hadn't turned round, and shivered as an ice-cold hand brushed his shoulder.

"Hey Deidara! Itachi's told me loads about you, but he never said how _cute_ you are!" The newcomer laughed, dancing round into view. "From the look on your face, I'm guessing he hasn't mentioned me?"

"Gnnuh." Deidara shook his head mutely, staring at the girl now infront of him. His legs seemed to have frozen in terror otherwise he would have begun backing away.

Penny was slim and small, with mousey brown hair set into ringlets and laughing green eyes. More to the point she was quite transparent.

"Gho...gho...ghost." Deidara managed, raising a shaking finger to point at her. She giggled and spun in a circle around him, her long Victorian skirts billowing out like a grey mist.

Itachi watched them with an amused smirk. "Really Deidara, don't you know it's rude to point?" He asked airily, enjoying himself immensely. The blonde cast a wild-eyed glance in his direction before his gaze was drawn back to the young woman who was laughing merrily at his reaction.

"Honestly Itachi, you could have warned him." She giggled, circling round Deidara again and looking him up and down.

"Nah, this way was more fun." The Uchiha replied lazily. "Don't just stand there gawking Deidara, say hello."

"Yeah, I don't bite." Penny added teasingly.

Looking between the two of them, Deidara swallowed back his fear, if only to stop them laughing at him.

"Uh...Hi, um...Penny." He mumbled, with no idea in hell how to address a ghost. "Uh, pleased to meet you."

She giggled yet again – she appeared to be one of those girls who never stopped – and gave a mock curtsey. "You really are adorable!" She sat down on the bonnet of the Corsa, although anyone watching close enough would notice that her skirts went through the metal, while she herself hovered about an inch above the surface. "You look full of questions."

"Just a bit." The ghost was so charming and, well, not spooky, that Deidara found himself warming to her quite naturally. "What are you _doing_ down here? Or is that an insensitive question?"

"Oh not at all." She chirped happily. "I fell out of that window." She pointed up to a tiny attic skylight. "My pet bird had escaped and I was trying to catch him. I lent a little too far and-" She let out a down-scale whistle, bringing one transparent hand down to hit the other. "_Splat_!"

Deidara winced. "Ouch...And you've been down here ever since?"

"Yep! One hundred and thirty six years, a month and roughly three weeks." Penny looked much prouder than she should have done by that fact.

"So you died in..." The blonde's face screwed up in thought as he tried to work it out.

"Don't strain yourself." Itachi smirked. "She died in 1872."

Deidara looked back at the ghost, who nodded happily. "But...You don't _act_ like a Victorian!" He said in confusion. "You talk like a modern girl."

"Of course I do! Kids always walk this way home from school, even in my time; I just listen in to their conversations. Not to mention the amount of discarded newspapers." She sent a doting look in Itachi's direction. "And of course since meeting Itachi things have become a lot more interesting. I have someone to talk to who _isn't_ still thinking that it's the seventeenth century."

The blonde looked over at Itachi, who was watching the conversation with a paternal air. "So is this part of what your job involves?" He asked in interest.

"Part of it, yeah." Itachi pushed away from the wall he'd been leaning against and sauntered up to stand next to Penny. "Not all ghosts need exorcising." His body language made it quite certain that if he was able to he would have put his arm around Penny's shoulders. "Some just want company. It's definitely more rewarding than when I have to send the poor buggers packing."

"Don't talk about us like that!" Penny chided, smacking him lightly on the arm. Itachi actually yelped and jumped a foot or so in the air as her hand passed right through him.

"Don't _do_ that!"

Deidara sniggered. "So, is there anyone else around here like Penny then? Anyone else you keep company with?"

"Of course!" Penny got there before Itachi did. "There are hundreds of us in the village, Itachi is known to most of us." She waved a hand in the general direction of the main square. "There's Lucy down in Cherry Street for one."

"Flower girl, hit by a cart in 1784" Itachi put in.

"And a real bitch too!" Penny added. "Then there's Alex, he's a chimney sweep over in Church House, died 1832. Ruben, a medieval blacksmith, died some time in the late 1400's. Benny, a German spy killed in 1943. And the old workhouse down Union Street is packed." She grinned, swinging her legs happily. "We range from Roman right up to the 1980's."

Deidara blinked. "Wow..."

"And that's what you'll have to deal with if I start training you." Itachi's input made the blonde's awed grin fade. "At the moment you can only see Penny because she's letting you, but if we begin to train your abilities, you'll be able to see many more without having to call them out first."

"So...I'll be able to see ghosts everywhere then?" Deidara looked thrilled at the prospect.

Penny and Itachi exchanged worried glances. "That's not a _good_ thing, Deidara!" The Uchiha said wearily. At the 'you-must-be-joking' look he received, he tried to elaborate. "Look, it's fine seeing someone like Penny, who's friendly, or one of the wisps – a ghost that doesn't notice anything or anyone around them so are completely harmless – but some are _dangerous_."

"Like poltergeists you mean?" Deidara asked, trying to be helpful.

"Well, them too. But I was talking more about the bitter ones." A shadow passed over Itachi's face – making Deidara wonder if he'd had a run in with those sorts of ghosts himself. "There are those that are so outraged at their own deaths that they wish to cause harm to others. For normal people they appear as dreams and mad thoughts that take hold at four in the morning – nothing overly dangerous in other words. But when they know you can see them...Then they attack."

Deidara shivered, then tried to pretend it was because he was cold. "Okay, you've succeeded in creeping the hell out of me, but you haven't dissuaded me from the idea." His blue eyes took on a deeper shade of ice. "I still want you to train me." He said firmly.

Itachi folded his arms appraisingly, but an approving gleam was lighting his eyes. "Good. I must say that I would have been very disappointed with you had you chickened out." He smirked slightly. "Don't expect it to be easy."

"I wouldn't want it to be!" Deidara couldn't stop himself from jumping up and down on the spot. "You mean it?"

"I think I might regret this but, yeah, I mean it." Itachi had braced himself for an enthusiastic reaction, but still wasn't quite prepared for Deidara jumping on him and swinging round his neck.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" The hyperactive blonde was almost in sonar range, but his friend got the message and gingerly patted his back in the hopes that he would soon let go. Deidara did release the stunned and slightly deafened Uchiha, but continued jigging about like he was dancing to his Mp3. Penny had been watching both of them with a highly amused look on her translucent face, but at Itachi's very tentative return to Deidara's overly enthusiastic hug she burst out laughing. The two boys turned to see the ghost curled over holding her stomach in hysterical giggles. Their confused looks set her off even more until she fell onto her side and rolled off the car's bonnet...

And hung in mid-air without seeming to notice.

"Okay, that's just a little bit cool..." Deidara moved to give her a hand to sit up, then realised that it would be pretty pointless. She straightened up and rolled over to face her visitors, lounging on the air like one would on a mattress.

"Yeah, I know." She said smugly. "It's not all doom and gloom once you pass on." She let her feet touch the ground, and spun like a ballerina on one toe before standing properly.

"Penny...Stop showing off." Itachi sighed, although he had to sigh it quite loudly to be heard over Deidara's muffled giggles. "He's still new to all this, don't encourage him even more."

Deidara fought his laughter back under control as he watched the Uchiha arguing with the Victorian. They made an odd picture; the see-through Penny in her corset and crinolines, next to Itachi who dressed all in black as if he were allergic to colours and was as solid as humans got. Who would ever have thought that he, a no-hoper art student and ex-shelf-stacker from the supermarket, would end up in the company of a ghost and a paranormal expert?

The magic moment was broken by a sudden rendition of _Bat Out Of Hell _that made all three of them jump, and Deidara swore. "Sorry, that's my phone." He muttered, fishing it out of his pocket. He grinned at the caller ID and flicked it open. "Hey Sasori, what's up?" Itachi glanced over in interest, but interest became concern as Deidara began to frown. "What? Why does he want us over again? Hasn't the curse gone?" The blonde paced round in a little circle, his expression clearing slightly. "Okay, right, well that's a relief. So why does he want to see us?" He scowled at the phone. "What do you _mean_ 'you'll find out'?! Just _tell_ me!" He glanced over at Itachi and rolled his eyes. "_Fine_ then! We'll be over in five minutes or so, ten tops." He snapped the phone shut. "Pein wants to see us again." He sighed, throwing his mobile up into the air and catching it again with one hand.

"And I take it Sasori didn't say why."

"Sadly enough he didn't." Deidara shrugged. "Pein's probably changed his mind about not beating the crap out of us."

Itachi nodded in resignation. "I was thinking the same." He sighed. Turning to face Penny he smiled apologetically. "It looks like we'd better go; someone wants to attempt to kick our arses."

The girl giggled and nodded. "You'd better come back soon, and in one piece." She ordered.

"I'll be back same time next week."

"Hmm, I'll hold you to that." She stood on tip-toe, although it was for show more than necessity – she'd already proven that floating wasn't hard for her – and kissed the Uchiha's cheek. Itachi managed to repress his shiver – no matter how often the ghost did that it still wasn't a pleasant sensation. Penny then whirled round to grace Deidara with a peck on the cheek as well, and he was less able to hide his shudder at the numbing touch. "And _you_ had better visit again cutie!" She warned playfully.

"I think you've persuaded me." The blonde smiled at the merry ghost and nodded. "I'll come back with Itachi."

Penny waved them off as Deidara reversed out of the narrow alley, and Itachi called goodbye out of an open window.

"Well?" The Uchiha asked, once they were back on the main road. "What did you think?"

"Hell of a girl, great personality, quite hot."

"I meant the fact that she's a ghost!"

"Oh, yeah." Deidara hit the brakes as a kid on a bike neatly cut across the front of the car with no warning. "Twat! Yeah, about Penny...well, I'll admit to having been a little bit freaked out at the start, but she was too nice that I couldn't remain scared. Why?"

Itachi shook his head with a small laugh. "I just never thought you'd be that comfortable around a dead person the very first time you meet one."

"She was too sweet to really freak me out. And besides, what did you expect me to do? Scream and run?"

"Something along those lines."

Deidara made the last turning into Pein's road and brought the Corsa to a stop outside the now-familiar house. "It takes more than that to scare me into screaming." He said smugly – causing Itachi to mentally decide that he would try to find out what Deidara was scared of at the first opportunity.

They left the car and Deidara rang the doorbell. There was a scuffling noise from inside before the side-door opened to reveal Konan's head poking out to look at them.

"Come on, get inside, it's bloody freezing out here!" She yelled, hanging onto the door frame to lean out far enough to see them whilst at the same time avoiding having to step outside without shoes on.

Well, that looked hopeful. Being ushered inside didn't usually precede a beating, so the two took it as a good sign that Konan was showing such niceties. They followed her in through the kitchen and back into the living room, which looked no different than when they'd been there the day before. The coffee table hadn't even been moved back to its original place.

Pein was lounging on the smaller of the two settees, whilst the other gang members were spread out around the room on miscellaneous beanbags, cushions and the other sofa. Konan threw an empty beer can at her brother to get his attention.

"Oi, they're here." She announced, dumping herself on top of Pein's legs and causing him to yelp and glare at her, before moving them so that she could claim a bit of the sofa. She waved Itachi and Deidara into the middle of the room, where they stood looking slightly awkward. Sasori waved from where he was perched on the edge of the coffee table.

Deidara folded his arms, refusing to be cowed by the situation. "Okay, what is it _this_ time?" He demanded glaring at Pein. "And before you ask; no, neither of us cursed your bunny slippers." There were sniggers around the room, and Konan let out a giggle that she had to muffle when her brother kicked her.

"No, my bunny slippers are fine, and all the better for you asking." Pein deadpanned, although there was a flicker of amusement in his eyes. "Actually I have a proposition for the two of you."

"No we won't star in your latest porno-"

"NOT THAT EITHER!!" Pein groaned, "For the love of God just let me finish talking before saying no!"

Deidara smirked in triumph, whilst Itachi looked faintly revolted, his mind still stuck on the porn-shoot idea.

"Fine then, why are we here? Changed your mind about not beating us up?"

"I'm now seriously reconsidering, but actually I was going to see if either of you were interested in joining us."

There was silence. A _long_ silence.

Itachi and Deidara stared at Pein, who grinned back. The others around the room all seemed to have known about this, so didn't react in such a shocked manner.

"You...what?" Deidara asked finally, and rather stupidly.

"I want you two to join the gang." Pein repeated, now looking thoroughly amused with the whole situation.

"But...Why? What have we got to offer?"

Even Itachi stared incredulously at the blonde for that dumb question. Pein raised a heavily pierced eyebrow.

"Because you two can both do this weird paranormal shit, which is amazing, and you can both kick arse in a fight." He said airily. "Two very usable skills. And I happen to have lost three gang members over the last year."

"That was careless." Konan added lazily. Her brother shot her an annoyed look as Deidara snorted with laughter.

"So, to reiterate; we have places open for new members, you two have shown that you've got what it takes. What do you say?" Pein asked, his gaze becoming serious as he watched the possible applicants appraisingly.

"Uh..." Itachi glanced at Deidara to see how the blonde was handling this situation. Said blonde looked ready to explode.

"Do you mean it?" He asked, almost breathlessly, eyes alight.

"Well, it was Sasori's idea, and he's known for having some damn good ideas, and Konan seconded it, so I'm flying this on woman's intuition, and blaming those two if this all goes to hell." Pein shrugged. "But, yeah, I mean it."

Deidara and Itachi glanced at each other and the Uchiha shrugged with a hopeless I've-never-been-in-this-situation-before-so-don't-ask-me look on his face. The blonde took charge of the situation, seeing that his friend was in over his head.

"What would it involve?"

"Gang meeting mostly." Pein replied casually.

"Which really means we all get together and watch a film." Konan added with a teasing grin at her brother.

Pein waved his hand irritably. "Okay, and that. We also deal a beating to anyone who pisses us off or is on our turf, and occasionally take on contracts from the bigger gangs in the city."

"Contracts?" Itachi asked tremulously. As the son of the chief of Nottinghamshire police he didn't like the sound of that. Deidara on the other hand just nodded understandingly.

"Yeah, contracts. Say they want a business man a little shaken up, but don't want their name to hit the news, or they need a go-between for a drugs deal. That's when we come in. We aren't a big enough threat to catch police attention, but neither are we small enough to go unnoticed." Pein's gaze was firm and unforgiving as he glared at the new comers. "And we don't suffer wimps, cry-babies or betrayers. The last person to decide that he could benefit by telling the police about a drugs deal ended up needing a hand amputated and lost the use of both his legs."

"I never heard about that." Deidara said, although his voice carried a nervous treble.

"Yeah." Pein leaned forwards, a wicked glint lighting his eyes. "_That's_ how good we are." He tilted his head to one side in question. "So...yes or no?"

"Uh..." Deidara weighed his options, knowing that Itachi was lost in the situation so would follow his lead. On the plus side they were being offered a place in one of the county's most prestigious gangs, and for their talents alone. On the other hand, it was dangerous and they could get into _serious_ trouble with the police...A grin lit up his face. Well, when put like _that_..."I can't speak for Itachi, but yes, I accept."

Pein nodded once, he'd expected that answer from the blonde. All eyes fell on Itachi.

"I...Uh..." He looked helplessly towards his friend, who was also watching him inquisitively. "Look, I really can't get tangled up in anything like this." He protested.

"Oh? And why would that be?" Pein asked coldly.

Itachi looked awkward. "My Dad is the head of the county police force; I can't even _imagine_ the trouble I'd get him in if I was found in the middle of criminal activity." He shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry, I appreciate it, but I can't accept."

There was a long silence, whilst Pein nodded understandingly, looking disappointed and rather bitter. Then he met Itachi's gaze again. "What if we didn't make you join in with the illegal stuff?" He asked finally.

"Then how would I benefit you?"

"Quite easily. You can fight better than jet Li! If you can teach us to fight like that, or at least attempt to then you'll be a very valuable asset to the gang. And your whole 'psychic-powers' thing just goes without saying."

It was a generous offer, and Itachi realised that. He also realised what else this agreement would get him. It was brilliant having Deidara as a friend – obviously – and now here was an offer that meant he'd gain a whole group of people that may eventually be friends as well. Well, as long as his father didn't find out about this...

"Okay, I accept." He said, with a slight bow of the head that was still an ingrained habit from his time in Japan.

The noise level around the room rose as the other gang members began to voice their approval. Pein stood up and held out his uninjured hand to Itachi. "Then, we welcome you." He clapped Deidara on the back, a sign that they already knew each other well. He turned to face the rest of the gang. "Guys, we have our new members!"

There was a chorus of cheers – driven by the beer no doubt – and Konan wolf-whistled. Deidara went red and grinned sheepishly whilst Itachi just looked lost. Konan jumped up, waving her arms to shut them all up.

"Okay, let's get you introduced." She chirped.


	10. Chapter 10

"Guys, we have our new members

"_Guys, we have our new members!"_

_There was a chorus of cheers – driven by the beer no doubt – and Konan wolf-whistled. Deidara went red and grinned sheepishly whilst Itachi just looked lost. Konan jumped up, waving her arms to shut them all up._

"_Okay, let's get you introduced." She chirped._

Pein was thrown off the sofa by his sister, who promptly forced the two newest members to sit down.

"Right." She stated firmly. "You already know Pein and me, so we don't need any introducing. And I know Deidara is friends with Sasori already, so we'll skip him too. I'll go round the room clockwise." She pointed to the nearest person. "This is Kakuzu."

The heavily scarred man waved once, nodding to the two newbies. "Pleased to meet you in a situation that doesn't involve us fighting." He said in a thickly accented voice.

"Kakuzu's an immigrant from Spain, he lives here with Pein and I." Konan explained. "Since he's not _technically_ meant to be in this country, we don't talk much about that. And the scars are from backstreet matador events, cool huh?"

"Very!" Deidara said enthusiastically.

"And this is Kisame." Konan moved on to the next member. "Ex-biology student from Nottingham university. Failed his first year so is now a life guard."

Kisame grinned at the description, and nodded a greeting. Deidara frowned slightly.

"I think I remember you, you were in the other half of the year group to me back in school, but I don't think we ever shared lessons. You won every swimming race on every sports day ever held!"

The tall man in question scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and shrugged. "Yeah, that'd be me." He laughed. "And aren't you that blonde kid who blew up the biology labs in year eight?"

Deidara went red as the rest of the group stared at him then burst out laughing. Sasori was the only one in the room to have already known about the incident, since he'd been in the class at the time.

"How'd you manage _that_?" Itachi asked in fascination.

"Petrol, magnesium ribbon and a match..." Deidara raised his hands in surrender at the stunned looks he was now receiving from Pein, Konan and Itachi, the only three in the room who knew him well enough to be surprised. Sasori on the other hand just grinned.

"Didn't Dei tell you he's chemical genius when it comes to exploding things, Itachi?" The red-head asked.

"He missed that bit out..." Itachi was staring at his friend who was beginning to look uncomfortable under the sudden attention.

"So I can make explosives, so what?"

Pein sat up properly from where he'd been lounging on the floor after being evicted from the sofa. "_That_ is a fantastic skill! What's the biggest you can make?"

"Uh...depends on the materials I've got, but...big." Deidara stuttered, thrown by the sudden new turn the conversation had taken. Konan saw the lost look in his eyes and tried to get them back on track.

"Okay, so that was Kisame." She said, loud enough to shut up anyone still asking questions. "And last but not least we have Hidan."

The white haired man who was sitting on a beanbag and industrially flattening beer cans with the heel of his hand gave them a maniacal wave. There was the imprint of a ring pull on his palm.

"Yo, what's up?" He turned his head to greet them and the two newcomers caught a flash of pink irises before he went back to his previous occupation. Noting Hidan's overall colouring, Itachi mentally placed him as an albino.

"Hidan's the only one here to have an ASBO." Konan stated proudly, "And is usually the one we call in to do the more...messy jobs."

Itachi raised an eyebrow, not liking the sound of that. "Messy jobs?"

"Yeah!" Hidan answered enthusiastically. "Interrogation, the more dire warnings, if someone's tried to be clever and not paid us...The fun stuff really." The manic grin was back, and although the Uchiha looked faintly concerned at this blatant disregard of human rights, Deidara was frowning.

"I'm sure I know you from somewhere..." He said slowly.

A flash of panic lit Hidan's pink eyes. "Not me, I doubt you've ever seen me in your life!"

But Deidara's mind had already found the memory it had been searching for. After all, how many albinos could there be in one small village?

"I know you!" He declared, pointing at the white-haired man. "You're the vicar's son! You do the whole 'carry the cross' thing and the readings and stuff in church!"

Hidan's white face flooded with blood as the rest of the room sniggered. "Well, I...Yeah, but..." He stuttered uselessly. As his friends laughed at him he tried to rally, "And how do _you_ know that blondie?!" He demanded. He peered closer at Deidara as the insult he'd just paid rang a bell in the back of his mind. "Hang on a minute..." The albino stopped and began to laugh. "You're that little choir boy we used to have!"

It was Deidara's turn to flush an angry red. "No I wasn't-" He began, but it was too late and Hidan interrupted.

"Yeah, you were. You used to be the solo singer every wedding service! And the lead treble in normal services."

Deidara spluttered something intelligible, but by this point Kisame was leaning forwards to get a better look at him too.

"Yeah, you're right Hidan. I remember now." He stated thoughtfully. "My grandparents used to drag me to the Christmas services when I was a kid. There was a little blonde kid who used to do the solo on 'Once In Royal' during the nine lessons and carols service." He sniggered. "Well, I'll be damned!"

Pein held up a hand to stop the overall laughter, sparing Deidara having to defend his pride. "Hidan, you can't get at him for singing in church as a kid, seeing that you're as close to being ordained as you can get without actually being a reverend!"

Hidan shrugged. "Well rob me of my only joy in life." He stated dramatically. "Without being able to prey on the useless and weak I have no meaning to my life!"

"And you're a church warden?" Itachi asked sceptically.

The albino grinned up at him. "I know, scary huh?"

Konan sighed irritably. "_So anyway!_ That's the lot of us. Itachi, tell us a bit about yourself." Her voice carried enough authority to make it into an order.

The Uchiha looked taken aback by the sudden demand; he'd only just gotten used to being open around Deidara, and now here was a group of strangers wanting to know all about him! Sure, he knew that by accepting the offer of friendship he'd have to open up to them, but wasn't used to just 'telling people a bit about himself.'

Sitting up a little straighter he tried to ignore the fact that all eyes in the room were now trained on him. "Well...um...My name's Itachi Uchiha, and as you know I'm a paranormal researcher." He began hesitantly. "I was brought up in Japan by my uncle, and I've already taken the International Baccalaureate over there. I'm now taking a further set of A-levels so that I can go to Harvard med-school. Um...I guess that's all there is to it." He ended dumbly.

There was a blank silence around the room, which Pein broke with a small cough. "_Harvard med-school_?"

"Uh, yeah?"

The pierced man shook his head incredulously. "Well...good for you." He managed. This was something that he hadn't had to deal with; their gang didn't usually run into intellectuals. In an effort to get back on track he turned to Deidara. "And last but not least...?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, me!" Deidara scratched the back of his head. "Well, it seems everyone has already met me except for Kakuzu, so there isn't much else to say. I'm an artist, and I'm doing my A-levels a year late since I dropped out of school after my GCSE's and then changed my mind afterwards. And I had no idea that I could do any sort of crazy paranormal stuff until yesterday." He finished with a grin.

"And that about covers the introductions then." Konan chirped.

"Not quite." Pein contradicted. "There are technically three others. But Orochimaru is now no longer counted among our number. But there are two more who are still members." He looked at his sister expectantly, who sighed irritably.

"There's Zetsu, he was on the same biology course as Kisame which is how we all met him." She stated. "But unlike _someone_-" She glanced in Kisame's direction. "We don't get to see him much since he didn't fail the year so he is still in uni. Finally there's Tobi, who also won't be around for a while. Unlike everyone else here," She indicated to the rest of the room with a sweeping gesture. "He actually has a real job. He's in Iraq at the moment, a helicopter pilot in the army air corps."

Deidara's eyes lit up. "A pilot?_ Cool_!"

"It's a tough job, being out there." Itachi stated; ever the more pragmatic one.

"Well he e-mails occasionally, so we know he's still alive." Pein said with a shrug. The gang were well aware of the risks their friend was taking and the danger he was facing, so were dealing with their worry by looking at it lightly. So far it was working and Tobi's occasional communications were enough to keep them calm. "Plus we'd hear on the news if something had happened."

"Is he home soon?" Itachi asked.

"Another eighteen months at least before he gets home." Konan sighed. She perched on the arm of the settee and kicked Pein in the shoulder. "Aren't you supposed to be telling the rules to our newest members rather than bitching about Tobi's absence anyway?"

Pein nodded absentmindedly, twisting his upper body at an odd angle to look at the two sitting behind him. "Right, okay, rules." He waved a hand vaguely. "Simple enough; don't usurp my authority, no embezzling funds, and don't betray the gang to the police, rival groups or anyone else who may put us in jeopardy."

"And if we break these rules?" Deidara asked, if only because Pein's tone made it clear that this wasn't something that would be tolerated.

"Depends. In some cases you just get thrown out after a beating, but if you betray the gang-" He shrugged lightly, "We'll kill you."

"Oh, okay, fair enough." The blonde hadn't expected any less, but also knew Pein well enough to recognise that it wasn't an empty threat. "What will you do about Orochimaru then?"

"The police have already got him so he's beyond our reach, but once he's out, his arse is ours!" Hidan punctuated his interruption by smacking his fist into his palm. Pein waved a hand in the albino's direction.

"What he said." He grinned at the two newcomers. "So, still happy with joining, or are you regretting it now?"

Deidara looked as enthusiastic as ever. "I'm still good. Itachi?"

The Uchiha glanced at his friend, before looking round the room. He wasn't intending to break the rules, and Pein had promised that he wouldn't need to do anything illegal, so he didn't see anything wrong. "Yes, I'm still happy."

Konan clapped her hands together with a beaming grin. "_Great_!"

Three days later saw the first official gang meeting that Itachi and Deidara attended. It wasn't really what the Uchiha had been expecting, since his only experience with this sort of thing was from watching old movies like the Godfather – which wasn't really a good comparison.

Whilst Pein and Kakuzu sat in the dining area that backed into the main room discussing finances the rest of the group took over the living room and – for want of a better word – _gossiped._ Konan and Hidan were bickering over the TV remote whilst Kisame commandeered a beanbag and settled down with a book – again something that surprised Itachi. Deidara was busy chatting with Sasori, making the Uchiha feel a little left out.

It was only when Konan squealed loudly because Hidan had poked her in a ticklish spot that Pein finally paid any attention to what was going on with the rest of his group.

"For God's sake guys!" He yelled, "Just pick something to watch and shut the hell up!" His gaze fell on the one of the newbies. "Hey, Deidara, you know where the video shelf is, pick a film to watch." He ordered, before turning his attention back to the sheets of numbers Kakuzu was going through with him.

Deidara blinked in surprise, but did as he was told and slid off the sofa to crawl over to the large cabinet that he remembered from when they'd been acquainted in their younger years. It was fuller now, since it had been at least three years since he'd last been told to pick a film from it, and – just a little sign of the times – all of the VHS's that had once filled it had been upgraded to DVDs. He stared at the huge collection and a small suspicion began to grow; this was a test. He was aware of the new silence behind him and realised that everyone was waiting to see what he would pick. So...the film he chose would reflect on him, that much was clear. With that in mind he instantly decided against the Saw trilogy that had been placed at the forefront of the collection; such a choice would just make it seem like he was trying to look macho. That meant that he had to be wary of any horror film.

A box caught his eye. Pushing others out of the way, Deidara pulled it out and grinned.

"Found one!" He stated happily. Konan snatched it off of him and let out a little whoop.

"Oh we haven't watched this in _ages_!" She chirped in excitement, bouncing over to the DVD player to enter the disc. Itachi leant forwards slightly to see what film had been chosen, and in the background Pein had paused to see what the blonde's choice was.

"Black-adder goes Forth?" The Uchiha asked, "What's that about?"

"It's the one set in World War One." Sasori was the one to answer him, and seemed happy with the choice.

"It's about a snake in World War One?" Itachi looked very confused at why everyone else in the room seemed to be enthusiastic about this weird choice. His comment caused a stunned silence and every pair of eyes in the room turned to stare at him – even Kisame put his book down to gaze at him in surprise.

"You...You don't know what 'Black-adder' is?" Konan asked slowly.

"No...No I don't, should I?"

Hidan shook his head in disbelief. "I thought _everyone_ knew about Black-adder!" He exclaimed, throwing the DVD box to Itachi. "There, read that. You'll know the names even if you don't know the concept."

The Uchiha scanned the back of the box whilst Konan fussed around the play-list on the TV screen. Hidan had been right; there were quite a few names he recognised, but even so he couldn't see what would be so funny about a group of soldiers stuck in the trenches. Sounded more like a tragedy!

It appeared he needn't have questioned Deidara's choice though; the first episode hadn't played more than a few minutes before it had the room – Itachi included – in fits of laughter. So for the next few hours the usually reserved Uchiha was introduced to the many ingenious ways in which one may attempt to escape from the army, and the many ways in which these attempts can fail – in the most humorous fashion. Itachi couldn't remember laughing so hard for a very long time – even with his Japanese friends from SPR he had rarely had such fun.

So it came as a shock to watch the last episode.

"Oh..." Itachi hadn't been expecting such an ending, so was quite taken aback as the credits began to roll over the field of poppies. "They...They all..."

Konan let out a little snuffling noise that caught the room's attention, and she wiped her eyes hurriedly. Hidan smirked, but threw a box of tissues at her so that she could blow her nose and clean up her running mascara.

"I wasn't expecting that." Itachi said quietly.

"It gets you even if you know what's going to happen." Deidara replied thickly. His odd voice made the others switch their gaze from the teary Konan to him, and Sasori began laughing.

"I forgot that you always cry at the end of this one."

"I am _not_ crying!"

Hidan sniggered. "Like hell you aren't Blondie!"

Konan nudged Deidara with her foot and passed him the tissue box, which he made good use of. He glared balefully around at the others with red-rimmed eyes.

"It's sad!" He protested in a woeful attempt to regain some ground.

"Yeah, but guys shouldn't cry at this!" Hidan smirked, folding his arms triumphantly. "You don't see me or Sasori or Itachi crying."

"Just because I'm not afraid to show my emotions!"

"Why don't the lot of you shut up?" Kisame growled, lowering his book enough to glare around the room from over the top. "I'm trying to read here!"

Quicker than a snake, Hidan switched targets, rolling over to face the life-guard instead. "Whatcha reading?"

"A book, Hidan."

"What book?"

"One with words. I'm afraid you wouldn't understand it, there aren't any pictures." Kisame delicately turned a page, not looking up at his antagonist.

Hidan growled. "Oh ha ha!" He tilted his head to read the title. "Da Vinci Code? _Bor-ing_!"

Kisame put the book down with an aggravated glare. "How would you know? You haven't even seen the film, let alone read the book, which is far superior." He glanced over to one of the new members. "You're an intellectual type of guy, Itachi, have you read it?"

Itachi raised an eyebrow in disdain. "A Dan Brown book? I think not!" The tone he said it in made the rest of the group stare at him in surprise.

"What's wrong with Dan Brown?" Kisame asked in astonishment.

"He's American." And the tone of voice made it quite clear that that in itself was a big enough problem.

The life-guard huffed irritably. "Well that's no reason to dislike the guy!"

"It's reason enough for me."

Even Deidara was staring at him strangely by this point. "I had no idea you were racist." He stated evenly.

Itachi shrugged. "I'm not, I just don't like Americans!"

"That kinda _is_ racist." Sasori contradicted. "There's nothing wrong with the US, what's your issue with them?"

"My family are from Nagasaki."

There was a blank silence around the room. Deidara knew what he meant, but the rest of the group didn't understand the significance behind the firm statement. Judging from the firm way that Itachi had stated his reason, it seemed he had expected them all to know what the hell he was talking about. After the silence finally grew uncomfortable the Uchiha sighed irritably.

"Don't tell me that name means nothing?"

"Rings a bell..." Kisame said slowly, to Itachi's general despair.

"August the 9th, 1945? This date isn't familiar?" At the continued silence the Uchiha realised that he'd have to elaborate. "Fat Man? Enola Gay? _Hiroshima_?!"

"Oh, _that_ Nagasaki!" A look of dawning comprehension spread across Hidan's face. "Why didn't you just say?"

"Because it is a little coarse to say 'I don't like American's since they dropped a whacking great atomic bomb on top of my family's home!' " Itachi shot back, now quite annoyed, especially since Deidara had begun sniggering at him.

Kisame nodded in understanding. "I see where you're coming from." He said slowly. "But it's still not a very good reason. That happened over sixty years ago, you can hardly hate an entire country because of one man's choice such a long time ago."

"The effects are still there, and my family still suffers because of it!"

The life-guard frowned slightly. "Y'know, my great grandparents were American." He stated. No one interrupted by this point, the argument had condensed down to the two men and it was up to one of the two to finish it. "My great grandpa was in the US navy during the war."

"So?" Itachi asked, rather rudely.

"_So_, he was stationed on a ship called the Arizona." Kisame stared hard at the Uchiha. "He died when that ship, along with most of the fleet around it was destroyed in the attack on Pearl Harbour! And do you see me hating those that attacked? No, because I don't. So don't think you're the only one with a reason to bitch about the past, Uchiha!"

Itachi was glowering at the life-guard, and it was a true glower, full of anger, embarrassment and hand-me-down hatred. Hidan – ever the one to pick up on these things – got up on his knees and began chanting 'Fight! Fight! Fight!', encouraging the rest of the group to join in. Deidara saw a look of panic cross Itachi's face at the escalating situation, and decided that should an actual fight begin he'd have to bail his friend out. As it was, Kisame held up a hand to shut them up.

"No, we shouldn't fight, the odds aren't fair." He stated calmly.

"What do you mean by that?" Itachi snapped back.

"Well, think about it; we can hardly have a proper representational fight, since you don't have 183 fighter jets, and I don't have two A-bombs. It just wouldn't be right." He looked thoughtful. "Now give me three days and I'll try to get my hands on some weapons grade plutonium and then we'll have to see."

Itachi stared blankly at him. Had he really just _said_ that? The Uchiha tried to keep his angry and aloof facade in place, but a grin began to crack through.

"I'm sure I can find at least 40 fighter jets by Thursday." He said, eyes beginning to sparkle with mirth.

"Okay, that'll have to do." Kisame slammed his hand down on his book, destroying the spine without realising. "And then, we go to war!"

Hidan raised his hand.

"What Hidan?"

"Can I be Hitler? – OW! Konan!"

It was nearly three in the morning by the time Itachi finally got home. This in itself was a novelty to him since there had never actually been occasion for him to stay out late before. And – because karma apparently hated him during the small hours of the morning – he hadn't even finished getting changed for bed before his laptop was beeping to inform him that SPR were online.

"What part of 'three in the morning' don't you guys understand?" The Uchiha groaned, the moment the screen flashed to life.

"Nice to see you too Itachi-san." Mai's cheery grin materialised. "Naru wanted me to check up on how the whole curse thing is going. If I didn't know better I'd say he's actually worried about you."

"Naru? Worried about someone? That'd be the day." Itachi settled down on his futon, the computer on his lap. "Well, you can inform his royal highness that I've sorted it all out, kind of."

"What does 'kind of' mean? You either have or haven't." The brunette stated firmly.

"Fine then, I have sorted it all out, with a little help from Deidara."

There was movement behind Mai before Naru himself came into view of the webcam. "Your blonde friend? How could _he_ help?"

Itachi inwardly groaned – the narcissist would be smirking about this for days! "Fine, you were right, he is a psychic. He was the one that cast the curse, although he had no idea that he had that ability. I removed it and it went back to him."

"And how did the gang leader take this revelation?" Naru asked primly, although his voice sounded far too smug for his cousin's liking.

"Well, we were quite surprised actually..."

It took nearly an hour to explain everything, especially since Naru kept insisting that he repeated bits. The argument with Kisame actually made the uptight young man start laughing though.

"I've told you hundreds of time before that your attitude towards the Americans would get you into trouble!" He scolded. "It serves you right that of all the people you could pick a fight with over it; it had to be someone who lost a family member in Pearl Harbour! I swear you're as bad as Lin, you really are!"

Itachi went red and glared at the digitised image on his screen. Lin was infamous for his dislike of the Japanese due to his own Chinese heritage, and up until now Itachi had always thought such an aversion belittled the man. And now Naru had just made it quite clear that he was just as bad. _Damn!_

He sighed. "I guess you're right. Kisame certainly argued his case pretty well; I dare say I may be persuaded that they aren't all that bad." He said with a small smile.

Mai grinned. "I have a feeling that you rather respect this 'Kisame' guy for that show of persuasion."

Itachi shrugged. "I think there's definitely a promise of friendship there."

"Good, you need friends." A new face pushed Naru out of the way to grin broadly at the webcam. "Hi Ita-kun!"

"Hi Bou-san," The overly enthusiastic greeting from the monk brought a proper smile to Itachi's face. "Nice to hear from you at long last. You've ignored at least four of my e-mails by now!"

"Meh," The blonde waved his hand expansively. "You know how it is; ghosts, ghouls and poltergeists leave little time for me to bother with such things as e-mails, sorry."

"What he means is that he's been away with his band on holiday." Mai put in, elbowing the monk in the stomach.

"I thought as much." Itachi sighed. "And how are the others? I've only spoken to Mai-chan, Lin and Naru recently."

"They're fine, we've just solved another case!" Mai was practically bouncing in the chair until Naru laid a restraining hand on her shoulder.

"And guess who was locked up in the cellar and almost eaten alive by the cannibalistic poltergeist?" Bou-san asked rhetorically.

Itachi sniggered as Mai went red and slapped the monk upside the head. "It's a rare talent you have there Mai, I've never known anyone quite as bad at getting into dangerous situations as you."

Mai stuck her tongue out at him, but Itachi didn't notice as he yawned widely.

"Sorry, I only got in a few a minutes before you called, and it's now nearly four, _again_. You lot insist on getting in contact at obscene hours of the morning!" He complained sleepily.

Bou-san smiled sympathetically. "Blame Naru, he's the one who insisted on following office hours here."

Itachi glared at his cousin. "Naru, you can be such a twat when you want to." He grumbled in English.

"I know." Naru smirked superiorly. "Now go get some sleep, you look like hell on a bad day."

The Uchiha resisted the childish urge to stick his tongue out. "Okay, I'll speak to you guys later then. Sorry I'm not more talkative at the moment."

"Nah, we understand. See you round Ita-kun." Bou-san said with a cocky grin.

"Yeah, Bye Itachi." Mai added, with a wave that The Uchiha returned half heartedly. Naru merely bowed formally.

"See you, narcissist." Itachi muttered dryly, and in English.

"Back at you Weasel."

And the screen went dead, leaving the stunned Uchiha staring blankly at it. Then he shrugged, shut the laptop and put it back on the table. It was nearly four in the morning and he was _tired_! It was hardly likely any other elusive friend would decide to get in contact. He pulled the quilt around himself and snuggled down to get some much needed and much deserved sleep.

It was exactly 4:37 when his mobile buzzed loudly in his ear.

"Wha' the _hell_?" It was official; karma was jumping up and down all over his arse.

He rolled over with a deep groan, and blindly threw out a hand to grope around for his infernal mobile phone. It buzzed again as he finally found the wretched thing and grabbed it. Flicking it open he squinted at the text-ID and groaned. _Deidara_. What the hell could he want at this time? Opening the message he suddenly felt wide awake, rather akin to having a bucket of icy water thrown over his head.

_**ITACHI, HELP!! NOW! **_

To be continued...evil snigger...

_Okay. Thanks to everyone out there who read this!! The sequel is already being written, and should hopefully be up soon _

_Big hugs and kisses to the worlds most awesome betareader, Manu-seme!! She's braved floods, food poisoning, terrorist attacks and her family to get this sucker beta read! (and I'm not kidding there!) mucho love my darling seme!! See you soon! Xoxoxoxoxooxoxoxox_

_And to all my readers, keep a weather eye on the horizon :D xox_


	11. Note

Guess what!?!?!?!

The sequel is up!!!!!!!!!!!!

Took me forever, but chapter one is go go go :D

Just look under my profile for 'What possessed you to do that?'

Mucho love people!!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxxox


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